India Requires 13L Charging Stations By 2030: CII Report

A new report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on ‘Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles’ claims that India would require around 13 lakh charging stations to cater to the growing electric mobility needs by 2030. It makes a case for the country to install around 4 lakh chargers for EV annually. 

The industry association said that a strong push by the governments at the central and state levels for EVs were needed for increased consumer choice. 

“Along with better awareness, there has been an exponential growth in EV uptake in 2022, resulting in a 3X increase over the previous year. Going by this trend, even in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario of 40 per cent year-on-year growth, about 106 million EVs will be sold every year by 2030. To achieve a ratio of 1:40 charging infra to EVs, India will need to install more than 400,000 chargers annually with a total of 1.32 million chargers till 2030,” a statement from the CII said.  

The CII prepared the report in collaboration with Edelman. It was the second in a series of CII reports on ‘Roadmap for Future Mobility 2030’. Vipin Sondhi, Chairperson – CII National Committee on Future Mobility 2022-23 (last year) and Former MD & CEO, Ashok Leyland and JCB, said, “The Union government has set the ball rolling on accelerated adoption of EVs, aiming to achieve sales penetration of 30 per cent for private cars, 70 per cent for commercial vehicles, and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers by 2030. The creation of robust charging infrastructure will lay the foundation for this. This presents a huge opportunity for India and the Indian industry,” said Sondhi. 

He called for a conducive policy environment at the central, and in the states to enable Indian startups, MSMEs, and large companies to roll out charging infrastructure across the country rapidly. “The sheer amount of charging infrastructure that would need to be set up in India provides the economies of scale needed to turn the country into a global manufacturing hub for charging stations, leading to job creation and exports,” he added. 

The report also made recommendations for policymakers to cater to the rising demand for EVs in the country. It included–a single-window mechanism to approve the setting up of the public charging infrastructure along with timely electricity connections & reliable supply by DISCOMS to ensure a higher density of charging infrastructure and quality of service, rationalization of demand charges by linking it to actual utilization and others. 

The report also batted for roping in more renewable power for charging EVs. “EV, if not powered through 100% green energy source, will defeat the whole purpose of the mobility transition. Use of 100% renewables for charging stations should be made mandatory by promoting open access, DRE through the C&I sectors and net metering combined with local energy storage system and grid storage system,” the report said.

The wholesale embrace of EVs by Industry is quite a change from the hesitant steps that were being taken until about 2021. However, it is for the government to now take a call on how hard it really wants to push EVs, as besides charging infra, other issues related to the EV supply chain, and of course the fuel share of the power grid itself are important issues that need to be considered. Many people believe that the EV push should be led by 2 and 3 Wheelers (as it has), thanks to their lower energy demands and the option of swappable batteries and more. Pushing EVs at a faster rate than what the market really requires, especially with the kind of unscientific moves like banning diesel and petrol vehicles of a certain vintage in NCR, seems to be a win for particular lobbies than the output of a considered plan for the environment.