In a bid to promote cleaner vehicles in one of the world’s most polluted countries, the government has come up with revised guidelines for setting up charging stations across the nation, which will aid in increasing availability of charging-related infrastructure in the next decade. Under the revised guideline, the government will install one electric vehicle charging station after every four km in cities and 25 km on both ways of highways connecting to these cities.
“We have tried to address the concerns of electric vehicle (EV) owners in new guidelines,” said Union Minister of Power R K Singh, expressing hope that the new guidelines will encourage faster adoption of EVs in the country.
The revised guidelines, he said, are more consumer-friendly, as they incorporate a number of suggestions received from various stakeholders. These revised guidelines shall supersede the previous guidelines issued by the Ministry of Power on December 14, 2018, according to a statement by the Power Ministry.
The plan to increase charging infrastructure will go through different phases wherein the mega cities with a population of over 4 million and highways connected to these cities will be considered in the first one to three years.
Subsequently, in the second phase within three to five years, big cities like state capitals, union territory headquarters may be covered for distributed and demonstrative effect. “Phase-wise installation of an appropriate network of charging infrastructure throughout the country has been envisaged in the guidelines ensuring that at least one charging station should be available in a grid of 3 km x 3 km in the cities and one charging station at every 25 km on both sides of highways/roads,” Singh noted.
Furthermore, important highways connected with each of these megacities may also be taken up for coverage. To address the concerns in inter-city travel and heavy-duty EVs such as buses and trucks, it has been provided that fast-charging stations shall be installed at every 100 km on both sides of highways.
Assuming that most of the charging would take place at homes or at offices where the decision of using fast or slow chargers would rest on the consumers, it has been clarified in the guidelines that private charging at residences or offices shall be permitted and power distribution companies may facilitate the same.