As of Tuesday, February 6, a press statement from the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) stated that 12,146 public EV charging stations are in service across the country as of February 2. The data presented indicates that Delhi has 1886 charging stations, whereas Maharashtra has 3079, the most charging stations overall. Additionally, it stated that 148 charging stations have been put into service as part of the FAME-II Scheme, with 53 of those being in the state of Gujarat and 30 in Kerala.
India’s EV charging infrastructure
MHI added that they have been able to provide public charging infrastructure thanks to the Ministry of Power’s initiatives and subsidies. ‘Guidelines & Standards for Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles’, published by the Ministry of Power in January 2022 (and revised in November 2022 and April 2023), allowed electric vehicle owners to charge their cars at home or at work.
Additionally, they supplied power connections to the Public Charging Station (PCS) within a specific time frame. The cost of the electricity was Rs 2.50 per unit for slow AC charging during solar and non-solar hours, and Rs 3.50 per unit for fast DC charging at PCS during solar and non-solar hours, respectively.
According to data released by NITI Aayog, the amount of infrastructure required to charge electric cars depends on a number of variables, including the composition of electric vehicles, how they are used, where they are located, how steep the terrain is, how quickly urbanization is progressing, and how advanced the technology of the EVs and the charging station is.
It further stated that there is no consensus on the number of charging stations required to support a given number of electric vehicles because these factors are always changing. The need is considered ‘dynamic’ and can range considerably from one charging station per 20 electric vehicles to one charge point every 150 electric vehicles, depending on the previously listed characteristics.
