Tata Power, a major player in India's electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, has paused its plan of scaling up public charging stations due to low utilization rate of its existing assets.
The company had in August 2023 announced it would increase its EV public charging stations to at least 25,000 by FY28. Currently, Tata Power has at least 5,500 public charging stations, the utilization rate of which is less than 5 percent.
Tata Power CEO Praveer Sinha told Moneycontrol that the company has laid the groundwork for a robust EV charging infrastructure across the country from Srinagar to Bengaluru and it would be able to scale up in no time when required.
“The only thing is that the penetration of electric vehicles has not happened to the extent we were expecting. If tomorrow, we see an increase in the penetration of electric vehicles, we'll be able to cater to that. The groundwork has been done… We continue to be the biggest player in the EV charging market with 5,500 public chargers, 1.2 lakh home chargers and 1,200 bus chargers,” Sinha said.
Also read: India’s power demand could see an uptick from August-end: Tata Power CEO.
Tata Power’s move could be an indicator of an overall decline in the pace of installation of public EV charging units in India. Last month, Karnataka government, a state with the highest EV infrastructure in India, had to scrap its ambitious plan of to set up 2,500 EV charging stations across the state citing poor response from private companies.
“I do expect that once EV penetration increases, you will see more and more of our chargers being utilized because today our utilization rate is less than 5 percent,” Sinha said.
The Niti Ayog, in a report released on August 4, stated that India has progressed to only about 7.6 percent of its total vehicle sales in 2024 being electric, which is “far behind” its target of 30 percent by 2030. It has taken nearly 10 years to reach a penetration level of 7.6 percent and now India needs to increase this share by over 22 percent in the next 5 years alone, the Union government’s policy think tank stated.
“India is doing well with electric two-wheelers and electric three-wheelers. With regard to electric buses, it has made some progress but with electric cars it has been slow,” read the Niti Ayog report.
Under the PM E-Drive scheme, the government aims to install 72,000 EV public chargers with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore till the end of FY26. These stations will be strategically deployed along 50 national highway corridors, and within high-traffic destinations such as metro cities, toll plazas, railway stations, airports, fuel outlets and state highways.
India currently has a total of 29,277 EV charging stations across the country. Karnataka leads with 6,097 EV charging stations, followed by Maharashtra at 4,155 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,326.
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