India’s Most Populous State Preps EV Charging Infrastructure

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India’s largest state, by population, has issued the country’s first-ever expression of interest document to gauge the mood of companies to set up a widespread electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the state.

The Expressways Industrial Development Authority under the government of the state of Uttar Pradesh recently issued an expression of interest document for setting up EV charging stations in major cities and along major highways. Image: Pexels

The government is planning to set up an undisclosed number of charging stations in eight major cities in the states and seven intra-state and inter-state highways and expressways. Conditions mentioned in the document are quite relaxed and are likely designed to attract as many companies as possible.

Companies having proprietary technology to set up and operate charging stations or those in joint ventures to source such a technology can submit responses. Further, respondents need to have successfully implemented only one charging station to prove their experience.

The EoI has been issued in line with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Power at the central government of India. A major reason for the issuance of this EoI are the conducive EV policy announced by the central government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles in India or the FAME-II scheme.

The central government has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 10,000 crore (US$1.4 billion) for this scheme. Already an EoI has been issued by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises offering subsidies worth Rs 2,500 crore (US$360 million) for deployment of 5,000 electric buses across the country. The central government has so far disbursed nearly US$50 million as incentives for procurement of electric vehicles.

The rapid issuance of such EoIs are foundations for implementation of much wider and ambitious policy directives announced by the government. These include plans to

  1. ban the sale of three-wheelers using internal combustion engines by March 2023 and all two-wheelers using internal combustion engines with less than 150 cc by March 2025
  2. mandate for cab aggregators like Uber and Ola Cabs to have at least 40% electric vehicles in their fleet by 2025
  3. ban sale of four-wheelers using internal combustion engines from 2030 onward

NITI Aayog, a think tank under the central government, is currently working as the driving force for designing the long-term policy with respect to electric mobility in India. A study conducted by the NITI Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute estimates that the annual market size of electric vehicles in India will cross 46 million units by 2030.

Image: Pexels


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