BluSmart is building a network of EV charging super hubs in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru. Its largest charging hub at Vasant Square Mall in Delhi has 400 chargers spread across 1,60,000 square feet of area powered by 1.8 megawatts of electric load. About 1,000 odd cars in BluSmart's fleet are compatible with GB/T while 4,000 EVs use the CCS2 connector.

"When we have cargo customers coming to us, we have to build separate charging infra for them," says Jaggi, adding that the company has already opened its charging hubs to a couple of corporate EV fleets.

Cargo vehicle buyers are extremely sensitive towards pricing, according to Jaggi. "One of the reasons why CCS adoption has been lower in the cargo vehicles is because GB/T is half the price of CCS," the BluSmart co-founder says. The company's charging hubs get 25% utilisation from its ride-hailing business.

Meanwhile, utilisation levels of various charge point operators are in the low single digits.

At Tata Power, a public charger's utilisation is less than 2%. "This is because we have created a large network of chargers already. Some of them are doing exceptionally well. Some of them are there in markets where EV penetration is happening or is likely to happen in the next few months," says Goyal.

Utilisation of EV chargers at Glida, formerly known as Fortum Charge & Drive, varies from 0-30%. "In some locations, we don't have much traction and in some locations, we see huge traction. The company's immediate target is to reach 12.5% utilisation levels across its portfolio," says Awadhesh Jha, executive director of Glida. About 51% of Glida's chargers are CCS2 while 18% are Bharat DC-001 and the rest are slow chargers.

Charge + Zone, which plans to set up 5,000 fast chargers on state and national highways by 2025, claims utilisation levels of close to 3%.

For EESL, the average utilisation of EV chargers is around 3-5%. "There are several locations where utilisation levels are pretty low. It all depends on where the chargers are," says the CEO of EESL.

While private players are partnering with fleet operators to capture some captive demand, PSUs are not necessarily looking at very strong business models, says WRI India's Kanuri. Location can make or break the viability of a charger, she says. "The general understanding in the ecosystem is that you need 35% for viability in terms of utilisation. You're not going to get 100% utilisation ever, but you need at least 30-35% for a green bottom line," says Kanuri.

According to Deepak Jain, partner, Bain & Company, charge point operators need at least 15-30% utilisation to be viable. "Right now, some are building supply in hope that utilisation will rise with time," says Jain. "There is merit in standardising the chargers because then it will lead to interoperability, which essentially means that the same network will be able to serve more cars, increasing utilisation. "From consumers' perspective, increase in utilisation will mean that they will have to pay less. The range anxiety will come down and lead to more cars getting sold," he says.

There is merit in standardising chargers because it will lead to interoperability, which essentially means the same network will be able to serve more cars, increasing utilisation, says Jain. "From consumers' perspective, it means they pay less. The range anxiety will come down and indirectly it will lead to more cars getting sold."

Tata Power expects utilisation at public chargers to improve as the EV penetration goes up. "We are in expansion mode. We are strategically deploying new chargers in places which have high footfalls like malls, highway pit stops, and restaurants," says Goyal, adding that more than a lakh four-wheeler EVs are projected to be sold this year.

Apart from charger compatibility, even locating an EV charger sometimes becomes a hassle as there is no common app to locate public charging stations.

A unified app for EV chargers is definitely needed, according to Rahul Walawalkar, founder and president of India Energy Storage Alliance. "Currently, there are different charge point operators who have deployed chargers across different states. So the EV user may need to keep checking different apps if they are moving across states," says Walawalkar.

"Many users have complained of issues related to live status of the charging stations and availability, which adds to challenges and range anxiety. So having a unified app that provides locations as well as other critical operating parameters can make it much more beneficial for users and help in accelerating EV adoption," he says.

Niti Aayog is planning such an app though. "The government think tank is asking charge point operators to share basics like where these vehicle chargers are and what kind of chargers are available at that charging station and whether they are working or not," says Chaitanya Kanuri of WRI India.

IT'S A COSTLY AFFAIR

A 30-kilowatt charger costs anywhere between ₹8 lakh and ₹12 lakh, excluding real estate and other civil works, according to Goyal. A 60 KW charger, which comes with two charging guns, costs roughly ₹15-20 lakh.

EESL's Kapoor says a 142-KW charger costs somewhere around ₹30 lakh including power supply, installation and commissioning. "The cost of the charging equipment itself is around ₹15 lakh. The cost of upstream infrastructure like transformers and electricity connection is somewhere around ₹15 lakh," he says.

Sanjay Aggarwal, president of Fortum India Pvt Ltd, the local unit of Finland-based energy giant Fortum, says the company would not like to keep chargers that are not utilised at all and that are there for the sake of optics. "If we feel that the EV adoption is going at a lower rate, then we would ramp it down. Why should we accelerate it? We would tune our infra with how the market develops," he says.

Aggarwal, however, remains optimistic, saying Glida has reached a stage where he sees long-term visibility. "By 2030, we would like to operate one-third of all charge points in India."

Almost all charge point operators in India currently cater to only four-wheelers and buses. The two-wheeler segment is a challenge because there is no industry-wide unanimity on which standard to follow and every OEM has its own proprietary charger, says Glida's Jha.

India's largest e-scooter maker Ola Electric has its own proprietary chargers, making its fast-charging Hypercharger network unusable for other EVs.

EV maker Ather Energy has set up India's largest two-wheeler fast charging network with over 1,300 chargers. Called the Ather Grid, the company plans to install over 2,500 charging stations by the end of 2023.

"There is a need for having a standard but it has to be OEM-driven," says Swapnil Jain, co-founder and chief technology officer, Ather Energy.

"We are working with a BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) committee to standardise EV chargers. The talks are at an advanced stage. It is not something that should be owned by one company. It should be agreed upon by all the OEMs," Jain says, adding that standardisation is inevitable.

Ather opened its charging connector patents to other OEMs in August 2021. A year later, Hero MotoCorp, which owns 33% stake in the startup, became the first OEM to use its connector.

"The integration of Hero MotoCorp's Vida electric scooters with Ather charging infrastructure is ongoing. The transition is not complete yet. It's a complex process to ensure interoperability between different OEMs," says Jain.

Ather's charger, which was originally proprietary, was made open but not everyone has adopted it, says Kanuri of WRI India. "Both Ola and Ather are trying to play the Tesla game. They are trying to build out their own network of chargers so that other two-wheeler OEMs come onto their charging network," she says.

India is targeting 30% of all new car registrations to be EVs by 2030. The Centre is also aiming to electrify 100% of two-wheelers and three-wheelers, which together comprise more than 80% of total automobile sales in the country. India has witnessed a shift in perception towards EVs over the past few years. A total of 8,96,664 EVs have been sold in 2023 till now, according to data from the VAHAN portal.

The country may need at least 13 lakh charging stations by 2030 to support aggressive EV uptake, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that India's average annual investments in EVs and private chargers will need to increase from about $210 million in 2016-2020 to $19-33 billion in 2026-2030 to enable EVs to account for 35% of total vehicle sales by 2030.

Bain & Company's Jain says that reaching 30% by 2030 may be a challenge, but believes 15-20% is achievable given the current pace of progress. "The two-wheeler segment is moving at a faster clip but has slowed in recent months because of issues around (FAME) subsidies. It should touch 40%-plus penetration by 2030," he says.

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