No turbocharge: Plug wars may derail India’s electric two-wheeler race

A WAR OF charging plugs is brewing between two new-age companies in India’s electric two-wheeler ecosystem. On one side is Ather Energy, the poster boy of electric scooters in India, and on the other is Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric. Each one has deployed vastly different connectors for fast charging. Ather, which uses the Type 7 connector, has so far set up more than 3,000 chargers across the country. But co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta is wary. “There is a need for standardisation. One of the largest bottlenecks is access to easy charging at home. If every OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has a different standard, then residential buildings will only end up putting a power supply. Only a common standard will simplify this problem, and also that of public fast charging,” Mehta says. The Type 7 connector is a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)-approved fast-charging model with an open-source design that integrates both AC and DC charging functions. Meanwhile, Ola’s Type 6 offers DC fast charging only. The company has set up 288 hyperchargers across the country. Akshay Shekhar, co-founder and CEO of Kazam, an electric vehicle (EV) charger startup, seconds Mehta. “Without fast charging, electric two-wheeler adoption will hit a ceiling. If you want to have a breakthrough, we need to get the mass majority to adopt it.” Legacy automakers, who have yet to offer fast charging for EVs, are expected to adopt either of the two connectors when they roll out their future EVs with fast charging capabilities. Meanwhile, charge point operators (CPOs), Shekhar says, are currently placing orders for both Type 6 and Type 7 connectors. “It is going to be the market or technology adoption of this that will tell which charger is going to supersede the other.” Hero MotoCorp, which owns a 30.9% stake in Ather, has already adopted the Type 7 connector in its offerings. While Bajaj Auto is expected to use Ather’s plug for its future vehicles, Ola’s Type 6 connector has found the backing of TVS Motor Company, according to Shekhar. Questions to the Chetak maker went unanswered, while a TVS spokesperson stated that “all options are being looked at”. In July, Ather Energy had a 15.7% market share in the electric two-wheeler segment, while TVS, Bajaj Auto, Ola, and Hero, had 21%, 19%, 17%, and 10%, respectively, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). The battle of plugs will intensify once motorcycles, often used for intercity rides, gain more market share. “For intercity rides, you need a lot of fast chargers on highways…for which the industry needs to come up with a common charging standard. You can’t have six different standards for six different OEMs. It is a gap that needs to be bridged. It will only get bridged when more and more players start gravitating to a common standard,” says Mehta. He is not wrong. Setting up public charging stations requires huge expenditure from the public exchequer. And there is intent. Under the PM E-DRIVE scheme, the government has set aside ₹2,000 crore for installing more than 72,000 fast chargers, including 48,400 for two- and three-wheelers. The earlier Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme focussed on setting up chargers for four-wheelers. However, the absence of a uniform connector will hinder interoperability. The lack of standardisation has hit customer confidence, say industry experts. Customers are left with range anxiety that limits their travel options. Shekhar points out that Ather’s and Ola’s fast-charging standards will also be used to power up the next generation of electric three-wheelers whose battery sizes are similar to two-wheelers. This may aid in increasing the average utilisation rates of public chargers, which remain in low single digits, according to experts. The charging problem leaves other stakeholders in the electric two- and three-wheeler segments sceptical. “As of today, the government has let market forces decide it. This [lack of standardisation] is a hassle for anyone who sets up the charging infrastructure because then they risk the possibility of underutilisation,” says Akshit Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Statiq, a CPO. “I don’t see why there should be two standards, because you will need to have two different kinds of infra. That’s a wastage of space and power. The way forward is only one standardised connector.” The plugging uncertainty threatens to hamper India’s ambitious target of increasing its EV share to 30% by 2030. According to FADA, the EV penetration across vehicle categories rose to 7.8% in FY25, up a tad from 7.1% in FY24; it has already hit 6% in two-wheelers, aided by brisk sales of electric scooters. “If you see the industry in the past 12-odd months, the monthly number of sales has not had a breakthrough. Mass adoption in the electric two-wheeler space will happen only with fast charging,” Shekhar emphasises. Bansal says Statiq will enter the two-wheeler charging space only if the government mandates one connector. “Standardisation is necessary. Interoperability is important. It shouldn’t be left to market dynamics because we are building an infrastructure. There is a cost to it, and building it takes time. Let’s build it in the right way. If the industry is not able to come up with a common standard, then there should be policies for it.” Interoperability is critical for an industry still in the nascent stages, says Ravneet Singh Phokela, chief business officer, Ather Energy. “For consumers, interoperability means they can charge anywhere without worrying about compatibility, which removes uncertainty and gives them the confidence to go electric. It also ensures they aren’t locked into isolated networks that serve only a few, making EV ownership far more convenient and practical.” If there is a public charging infrastructure in play, then there has to be standardisation, says Anant Nahata, CEO of Exicom, that works in the EV charging space. Echoing similar views, Rajeev Y.S.R., CEO of ThunderPlus, a company that manufactures as well as operates chargers, says the government must mandate it for a greater cause. “EVs are a small ecosystem; OEMs must collaborate rather than compete,” he says. Haresh Bhere, chief technology officer of Jio-bp pulse, the electric mobility arm of the Reliance Industries-backed firm, echoed similar views during an earlier interaction with Fortune India. “CPOs are unlikely to put their money into setting up charging stations for electric two-wheelers unless the government steps in and mandates one connector,” he had said. “There are two factions in the industry where one wants Type 6, while the other wants Type 7. The government has to step in and pick one,” he had said, adding that the industry needs to come together. For the supply chain, a common standard provides the clarity to invest in scaling components and infrastructure without the risk of fragmented demand, ultimately bringing down costs and improving reliability, Phokela explains. “From an operator’s perspective, it means better station utilisation, simpler maintenance, and stronger unit economics, which creates a greater incentive to expand networks.” NITI Aayog, the nodal agency tasked with charting a roadmap for the growth of electric mobility, did not respond to Fortune India’s queries for a comment. While electric cars have moved to the Combined Charging System Type 2 (CCS-II) connector, a European standard for fast charging, the problem of duality spills over to the small commercial vehicle segment where the choice is between CCS-II and the Bharat DC-001 standard, a low-voltage architecture based on China’s GB/T protocol. Directionally, the future is poised towards CCS-II, says Suman Mishra, managing director and CEO of Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, which manufactures small commercial vehicles. The older generation of cars was compatible with DC-001, but no carmaker uses this anymore. “We think that this (a common standard) will solve the charging problem of small commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles in one go,” she says. That said, while most cars have switched to CCS-II charging connectors, small commercial vehicles of Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp-backed Euler Motors still use the DC-001 chargers. Since CPOs have stopped setting up DC-001 chargers due to their lower offtake, the commercial vehicle arm of Tata Motors has partnered with ThunderPlus and Delta Electronics to install DC-001 charge points at its dealerships to provide fast-charging support to ACE EV customers. ThunderPlus’s Rajeev says if a company like Tata Motors has chosen to build an entire platform on GB/T, that seems to be a long-term strategy. “From an economic perspective, for commercial vehicles, GB/T is a bit cheaper compared to CCS-II.” In September last year, Euler Motors launched two light commercial vehicles: the Storm EV T125 comes with the DC-001 standard, while the Storm EV LongRange 200 uses CCS-II. Its founder and CEO, Saurav Kumar, says the overall cost of the vehicle goes up with the CCS-II charger. “If you are looking for price parity in the total cost of ownership, that is where we felt that it is okay if we don’t integrate a CCS charger. Ultimately, it is about value and price. As an OEM, we would want to offer the right value at the right price.” But not everyone is aligned. Companies that use DC-001 will have trouble scaling up because there are not enough vehicles on that standard, says Exicom’s Nahata. EV penetration in small commercial vehicles was less than 1% in FY25. And for this to increase, experts say there is a need to move towards the CCS-II standard, which offers the fungibility of chargers with passenger cars. Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.

No turbocharge: Plug wars may derail India’s electric two-wheeler race

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