Kia Installs India’s Fastest EV Charger In Gurugram

Giving a fresh fillip to the charging infrastructure in the country, auto giant Kia has said that it has installed India’s fastest electric vehicle charger at one of its official dealerships – Dhingra Kia – in Gurugram, Haryana. Kia has said that it will be installing as many as 15 such superfast electric vehicle chargers in 12 cities of the country by August 2022.

The DC electric vehicle charger comes with a capacity of 150 kW that can easily charge up the Kia EV6 in less than 42 minutes from 10 to 80 per cent.

Myung-sik Sohn, Chief Sales Officer, Kia India, said on the launch of the EV charging station, “We started with the ambition of making EV ownership aspirational and launched our global best EV – the Kia EV6 in India, earlier this year. To take things further, we’re now incredibly excited to inaugurate the first DC fast charger for passenger vehicles with a 150 kW charging capacity, playing our role in India’s EV growth story.”

Sohn added, “At Kia India, it is our constant endeavour to provide a superior customer experience and we believe that such fast-charging solutions will take away issues of range anxiety & charging time that EV owners face. We shall be installing a total of 15 such chargers across 12 cities by August 2022, and are hopeful that such small steps will go a long way in fostering EV adoption in the country.”

The Indian electric vehicle market has grown threefold in the financial year 2021-22. The industry is expected to grow to a massive $23 billion by the end of 2023 and the success can only be realized when there is a balanced growth of EV charging stations. The Central Government has come up with mega schemes such as FAME1 and FAME2 to support the country’s EV industry. These schemes have a special focus on charging infrastructure.

In 2021, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had shared its plans to establish an EV charging station for every 40-60 km on India’s national highways. At policy level, the country wants 70 per cent of commercial vehicles to be electric by 2030. NHAI looks to cover 40,000 km of the highways with these charging stations by 2023.