India's electric vehicles saw record sales between April to September leading to a slew of prospective launches scheduled for the next three years. On its part, the federal government announced that EV prices would become affordable. They also nudged state-owned oil enterprises to set up charging stations across the country.
Now, we hear that companies manufacturing charging stations for electric vehicles are witnessing an increase in demand from an unlikely quarter -- representatives of apartment complexes. These resident welfare associations (RWAs) claim that a good chunk of their residents own EVs and can use an exclusive charging station.
Beyond this, these charging station makers are also signing agreements with a host of builders in cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad for installing similar charging stations in their upcoming projects.
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A report published in the Economic Times quotes an official of a charging station manufacturing company to say that while the government push towards sustainable modes of transport is bearing fruit, the recent spike in fuel costs also had its effect on growing demand, especially for electric bikes. This company recently bagged a large contract from the Delhi government to set up charging stations.
The company has set its sights on having 10,000 charging stations across India, with a clear focus on existing apartment buildings, office complexes and malls. They say that residents in Pune, Bengaluru and Gurugram were happy to give up 10% of their parking space for having the charging stations.
The publication quoted a few other charging station startups to indicate that current demand remained concentrated largely around the tier-1 cities of the country with a couple of tier-2 locations getting traction in recent times.
Already the Tata Group, whose Tata Nexon EV emerged as the highest selling car in the country, has unveiled plans to launch 10 new models over the next five years.
In case, you thought this was a one-off instance, Chinese smartphone makers who are operating in India have also joined the fray. Both Oppo and OnePlus recently had trademarks approved by the federal Indian government for their EVs. And both claim that their first electric bikes would be out within the next two years.
In parallel to all these developments, India's state-owned oil marketing companies - Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum - recently announced that they would jointly add up to 17,000 charging stations at their petrol stations spread across the country.
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