As Range Anxiety Recedes, Enter Charging Anxiety For EVs In India

Personal mobility solutions are increasingly about clean, mean electric machines. In India, that means big, bold, and beautiful electric crossover vehicles and SUVs offering the latest in battery tech, safety tech, and comfort tech that promise to go longer and higher on a full charge.

As EV Range Improves…

More importantly, improving batteries and battery tech has meant that range anxiety is increasingly going away, as higher and higher range EVs are launched. The fantastic pace of development in the segment has meant that a buyer is now spoilt for choice with the latest that is there to take her from A to B without becoming an electrician interpreting kWh per actual km, decoding battery charging jargon, or becoming an algo wiz trying to calculate the next pit stop to charge the vehicle on the way.

Charging Limitations have Arrived

Consumers now have the latest and the very best in EV platforms to choose from. With one caveat. Steep challenges with the charging experience that the EV OEMs, their dealers, or even the social media influencers “fail” to educate about.

Challenges like battery charging hygiene, real range vs. claimed range, driving style, and good pedal touch vs. bad pedal touch have become reels and YouTube videos. However, the most critical issues around the availability of working public chargers and their steep charging rates per unit, ease of installing EV chargers at home, and challenges with sanctioned loads at most homes are rarely discussed or brought forward at the time of purchase.

OEMs now offer better battery packs that claim better range, better safety, and less time to charge with fast AC or DC chargers but often fail to understand the basic challenges with power connections available at most homes.

Users end up buying EV vehicles without first understanding the specific power needs required to charge their EVs via the OEM-supplied charger or even exploring the technical feasibility of installing slow or fast AC chargers at home and often end up getting a shock once they realise the challenges with their domestic power connection at home.

What that means is that charging anxiety has replaced range anxiety.

Consumers Have Reason To Be Wary

According to a survey conducted by Park+ in July of 2024, 51% of EV owners wanted to switch back to ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles due to charging anxiety taking over from range anxiety with the advancement in battery tech.

The report said that “88% of EV owners cite charging anxiety as their main concern. This anxiety is exacerbated by the uncertainty of whether charging stations will be operational or accessible when needed. Most EV owners rely on home or workplace charging, but the lack of convenient, ubiquitous charging options remains a substantial hurdle.”

With more claimed range and power comes hefty power needs, but the pain of installing chargers at home is becoming a big handbrake now, and here lies the secret sauce of making that EV purchase decision bulletproof.

I see so many EV customers getting buyer’s remorse the moment they realise just days after that fast chargers are a no-go in their homes, societies, or apartment complexes as it is above the sanctioned load of their current domestic connection or that the transformers installed at the housing society are already running on full load so new connections are not possible.

Most homes in Delhi have a sanctioned load of at best 4-5 kW, which means a maximum of 2 ACs of 1.5 kW each and the other usual load at home during summer, and 2 heaters and the typical load during winter.

Those who have a direct DISCOM connection at home in Delhi, like from BSES or Tata Power, have the option of applying for a separate EV meter or getting their sanctioned load increased to accommodate the load of the charger, but that comes at a higher fixed cost per month. And since many societies are on bulk metering or single-point connection, these residents do not have this option.

These facts are often not considered or ignored by buyers when a decision is made to buy an EV, and OEMs too conveniently ignore informing or educating the buyer of the last-mile challenges to overcome charging anxiety that eventually kicks in some days after.

Now, if you have an EV, you will be charging your vehicle most likely at night, as you will be using the vehicle during the day. That means, if you have a car that can charge the batteries faster via a 7 kW home charger, you are stuck as the sanctioned load is only for 4 kW.

Even with a slow charger of 3.3 kW, you will be lucky if you manage without shutting off the high-load gadgets at home, like air conditioners or heaters, at night—the time when you need to sleep blissfully—just to charge your vehicle for the next trip. A bitter experience that a buyer often wakes up to post-purchase.

Have EV Firms Sold a Dream Of Convenience and Lower Costs? 

At the time of sale, OEMs and dealers promise free installation of fast AC chargers at home, and with some new vehicles, even free public charging for a year, which sweetens the deal and entices the buyer, but that takes away the comfort of home charging where it is the most practical and cost-effective that buyers realise after.

Delhi had made rapid strides in installing public EV chargers, but lack of maintenance has led to quite a few chargers missing the gun, faulty displays, or even dead chargers.

Also, the math of at-home charging over public charging doesn’t add up when trying to justify the premium paid for an EV over its ICE sibling. In Delhi, a buyer will be charged Rs 7 to 8 per unit when charging at home (AC slow or fast) vs the steep charge of Rs 15 and upwards via public chargers for AC and DC charging.

Then add the inconvenience of taking the car out for public charging and realising that all the bays are full once you reach—a huge cause for that dreaded charging anxiety.

And some OEMs cleverly forget to mention the time to charge fully via a portable or slow (3.3 kW) charger at home. They always mention the time it will take to charge via the AC fast charger of 7 kW or 7.2 kW, which is usually between 7 to 8 hours for, say, a 38-kWh battery pack, or the time you will be sleeping at night and your car charging at home.

But, as many have found out, the actual charging time via the AC slow charger can be around 14 to 15 hours or more for EVs with larger battery packs of 38 kWh and often more, as the latest models of EVs, which claim higher range per charge, have large battery packs of over 35 kWh.

This is now becoming a big point of discussion in RWA WhatsApp groups and often leads to deep disappointment with purchase decisions and EV adoption.

It is not uncommon for EV buyers to realise and learn these basic truths only after bringing their vehicle home.

With the recent launches and the record bookings of some new EVs like the MG Windsor, Tata CURVV, and Mahindra’s BE 6e and XEV 9e, many housing societies and apartment complexes in Delhi find themselves grappling with the huge headache of residents applying for EV charging connections.

In Delhi-NCR, many gated communities have bulk metering or a single-point connection, and the residents pay rates fixed by the RWAs. Since many societies were built years ago and in the pre-EV era, their power infrastructure, like transformers, cables, and distribution systems, is already running at full capacity, so there is no scope left to entertain requests for new connections of EV chargers.

Now, these societies are at their wits’ end as their installed infrastructure is unable to cater to this sudden demand for new load. The cost to upgrade the transformer, new cabling, meters, distribution systems, and the other added infra is pricey, and not all residents are willing to pay for the needs of just a few users.

Also, the justification for their helplessness to provide the connection is lost in transmission, as most do not understand the electric-speak of the chances of meter tripping, fire hazard from overheating of cables because of overload, and the threat of penalty for drawing power beyond the sanctioned load, which is often taken as an excuse.

And even if the societies and apartment complexes install public fast chargers, at best they can do one or two, as almost all societies and complexes don’t have either the space for EV charging bays or spare power load available to install these fast 7 kW AC chargers.

Residents of some societies who have installed public chargers are now facing issues with their availability, especially at night, as it has become a game of ‘fastest guns drawn first’ at the chargers. This often leads to bickering and even heated arguments and friction, and this will become a huge issue for RWAs, residents, and EV users going ahead.

Also, these public chargers have higher per-unit rates to offset the cost of equipment, infrastructure, and service, which then defeats the whole point of ease of charging at home and cost per km over ICE vehicles.

A Problem That Needs Solutions, Fast

All factors taken together, more EVs will only lead to more charging infra demand and hopefully a clearer regulatory roadmap. Because, without charging infra keeping pace it will be a significant roadblock, not a speedbreaker for the EV transition.

At-home EV charging is still the best way to charge and at the most cost-effective rate to justify a higher premium for an EV car, and this bottleneck now needs to be addressed and fixed with a concerted effort from the entire EV ecosystem’s stakeholders.

OEMs, city planners, DISCOMS, and regulators will have to quickly find solutions to overcome the pain of charging anxiety, as news of the imminent launch of Tesla and other global brands will only mean the need for more public fast AC and DC chargers and, more importantly, a user-friendly and practical policy for installing at least a 7 kW AC fast charger at home easily.