Following the news that the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) in India has invited an expression of interest (EOI) for the development of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure on major highways and expressways;

Animesh Kumar, Director of Automotive Consulting at GlobalData, a leading research and consulting company, offers his view:

“Despite a wide EV portfolio from major OEMs, inadequate charging infrastructure has been a major factor hindering the acceptance of EVs for public and private mobility across India. Against this backdrop, the move is a positive development for the Indian EV market and is set to boost EV uptake for intercity transport.

“India has set an ambitious target of achieving 30% electric mobility by the end of 2030 with main focus on electrification of public and shared transport. Incentivizing EVs and development of infrastructure are the two main ingredients for government to achieve the target. However, despite of attractive demand incentives, so far the government efforts have not been able to create the right thrust for increasing the EV uptake, which is primarily due to slow development of EV charging infrastructure.

“The expression of interest, which is part of the FAME-II scheme, invites government organizations, PSUs, government DISCOMs, oil PSUs and similar public and private entities to build and operate 174 and 1,370 fast charging stations across expressways and highways, respectively. This will be a second major move under FAME-II after the state governments sanction of 2,877 EV charging stations across major cities to 22 public entities in January 2020.

“With conducive demand incentives and affordable EVs, the availability of adequate charging infrastructure at affordable cost needs to be the major focus area for the government. Apart from sanctions under FAME-II, the government also plans to make it compulsory to install EV charging kiosks at all company-owned, company-operated (COCO) petrol pumps of state-controlled oil companies. Along with this, awareness among consumers regarding the financial and environmental benefits of EVs in the long run will make EVs a success in India.”