India needs ₹16,000 crore in capex to meet growing public charging demand and achieve the government’s mission of over 30% electrification by 2030, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

The ‘FICCI EV Public Charging Infrastructure Roadmap 2030’ report suggests that the top 40 cities out of the 700-plus cities analysed on the basis of their EV sales from 2015 to 2023-24 and 20 highway stretches could be prioritised for scaling up public charging infrastructure. These top 40 cities are expected to have higher EV penetration in the next 3-5 years given the current EV adoption rate, and favourable state policies. And 20 highways stretch connecting these 40 priority cities contribute to 50% of the vehicular traffic.

Financial viability for public charging stations in India remains low at less than 2% utilisation rates and to achieve profitability and scalability, they need to aim for 8-10% utilisation by 2030, according to the report. Citing a case study, the report highlighted that Germany has created an economically viable public charging network with 5-10% utilisation rates, and more than 16% utilisation rates at the highways. FICCI says this may require players to collaborate with local authorities for hyper-granular planning to identify hot spots for setting up public charging stations.

Charge point operators need at least 15-30% utilisation to be viable, Deepak Jain, partner, Bain & Company, told Fortune India last year. The Indian government has yet to mandate a common fast charging standard for four-wheelers and two-wheelers. Some automakers still produce vehicles that are compatible with only low-voltage fast charging Bharat DC-001 standard, which is based on the Chinese GB/T standard.

charge point operator

India needs ₹16,000 cr to meet public charging demand for EVs by 2030