Govt Green Energy Mission Gets Fillip with BEL’s EV Charging Station

In a bid to promote the Government of India’s green energy drive, Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), in collaboration with Maharatna PSU Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), has set up a fast Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station at the HPCL Retail Outlet at Amravati Enclave near Pinjore on the Chandigarh-Shimla Highway. The charging station has two guns of 25 KW each of CCS-2 protocol.

BEL is a multi-product, multi-technology, multi-unit conglomerate offering products and systems in the areas of military communications, radars, missile systems, naval systems, electronic warfare and avionics, C4I systems, electro optics, tank electronics and gun / weapon system upgrades and electronic fuses in the Defence segment. BEL’s non-defence business segment includes areas such as EVMs, homeland security and Smart Cities, solar, satellite integration and space electronics, railways, artificial intelligence, cyber security, software as a service, energy storage products and composite shelters and masts.

Dinesh Kumar Batra, Chairman & Managing Director, BEL, inaugurated the new facility in the presence of Debashis Chakravarty, Chief General Manager, HPCL, Bhanu Prakash Srivastava, Director (Other Units), BEL, Prabha Goyal, GM (Panchkula), BEL, and other members of senior management teams of BEL and HPCL.

The Panchkula Unit of BEL informs that it is working towards meeting India’s global commitment to reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resulting in reduction of fossil fuel imports. BEL has indigenously developed EV slow and fast chargers, in addition to creating EV charging infrastructure in cities and highways. The Ministry of Heavy Industries has entrusted BEL with the task of setting up EV charging infrastructure at four highways/expressways.

Defence is the mainstay of BEL and has traditionally been contributing to around 80% of the company’s annual sales revenue. BEL, however, has been continuously exploring diversification into allied non-defence areas, energy storage products for electric vehicles (Li-ion and fuel cells, charging stations, etc) being one of them.

“BEL is known to be an eco-friendly company. We have clean and green campuses at all our Units across the country. Renewable energy from BEL’s captive solar and wind power plants contribute to around 49.36 per cent of our total energy consumption. BEL is diversifying into many areas of non-defence and Energy Storage products is one such area we are keenly focussing on. We fully endorse the Government’s green energy mission and the setting of this EV charging station is one more step in that direction,” said Dinesh Kumar Batra, CMD, BEL.

“HPCL is focused on expansion of the business profile with greater presence in the clean energy segment. We are working towards making our retail outlets multi fuel, so that mobility solutions can be provided for whichever vehicles customers choose to drive. More than 1,100 EV charging stations have already been set up in our 20,000 plus outlets across India,” said Debashis Chakravarty, Chief General Manager, HPCL.