Government is planning to install EV charging station every 3 km : Report

The government looks all geared up to realise the ambition of making India an electric vehicle hub by 2030.

The power ministry is reportedly aiming 4 billion-plus population cities under the EV policy initiative to rollout first phase of electric vehicle. It plans to cover all the state capitals, union territories, major highways and key cities under the second phase.

Power Ministry’s joint secretary Vivek Kumar Dewangan at an industry event said “In a grid of 3-by-3 kilometere (km), atleast one public charging station will be set up in urban areas. For the highways, atleast one fast EV charging station is planned for every 100 kms,” reports ET.

Last year in April the power ministry announced that charging of electric vehicles is not a licensed activity and would be considered as a service.

The de-licensing made sure that any entity can set up a public charging station in the country. Later Central Electricity Authority laid down technical and safety norms for charging infrastructure of e-vehicles.

Public charging standard norms and guidelines for EVs were notified in December 2018.

Last month the ministry revised the charging infrastructure guidelines for EVs based on the inputs received from stakeholders.

The revised guidelines covered the issues of location for setting up public charging stations.

Dewangan speaking to the publication said “In the next 10 days, we will be able to finalise the agencies for setting up EV charging infrastructure in the country, in response to the overwhelming expression of interest we received from various stakeholders and agencies. Policy framework to deploy Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure in India”.

He further added that the ministry is committed to increase the share of renewable energy in the overall energy mix to 175 gigawatt (GW) by 2022 and the way forward is to achieve 450 GW of renewable power by 2030.