Tata Power will setup 500 EV stations in India by end of 2020

With rising environmental concerns and the limited availability of Conventional fuels, all the countries across the globe are promoting Electric Vehicles. On the same lines, the Government of India is also promoting development of EVs by providing tax benefits like GST cut and tax free registration. However, the main issue at hand right now is the lack of proper charging infrastructure. Tata Power – a part of Tata group has come up with an initiative of installing 500 charging stations across key cities in India by the end of 2020 thus giving the EV infrastructure setup a much needed boost.

According to Mr. Ramesh Subramanyam, CFO & President – New Businesses, Tata Power, there are no more than 500 EV charging stations in India as of today. This clearly is inadequate given the emphasis on EVs development by the government. Per him, we may require around 300,000 EV charging stations in a city like Delhi alone by 2030 considering 30% penetration rate. Meeting this enormous infrastructure need will require an investment of close to $1.5 billion. The number of EV charging stations required will depend on the penetration of EVs in India’s automotive market.

TATA power electric charging station EV duniya

To accelerate the development, Tata Power has partnered with various third parties like battery manufacturers, automobile companies, regulators, municipal corporations and consumers. The objective is to develop an EV charging ecosystem in India that is at par with global standards. Along with the development of charging infrastructure, Tata Power is also working towards a Time of Day (ToD) tariff structure which will encourage consumers to shift a part of their consumption load from peak times to off-peak times. Tata Power is also exploring other innovations such as a web-based mobile application that will enable consumers to book a slot at an EV charging station, locate a station, make payments and provide customer support.

Looking at the pricing aspect of Charging, at present, consumers are charged somewhere around ₹6 per unit. The boards are also using ‘Time-of-the-day’ tariff model to promote charging during non-peak load hours in a bid to ensure that the common power grid is not excessively burdened by over-consumption from EV charging. To encourage this, boards are offering an incentive for charging during low load night hours. Also, an additional surcharge is charged for charging during morning and evening peak load hours to discourage users from using EV charging during peak hours thus maintaining the load on power grid.

The goal of 30% EV adoption rate by 2030 is still a distant dream. But with initiatives like these, we are definitely moving towards it one step at a time. Here’s hoping that more and more big players come forward and propel the initiative for greater good.