Kirana connect: Charging e-vehicles in neighbourhood

BENGALURU : With growing environmental concerns, electric vehicles are now in focus more than ever before. To make charging of such vehicles easier for owners, city-based Kirana Charzer has launched an app and EV charging stations for public electric vehicle charging. The company has plans to set up 1 lakh EV charging stations across 50 cities in India in the next two years. The main feature allows kirana owners/hosts to set the pricing, track utilisation and electricity consumption. EV users will be able to locate these charging stations, book a slot, pay and operate from the Charzer app. The charging station is IOT enabled and can also work in low-network areas. 

The company, founded by entrepreneurs Dheeraj Reddy, Sameer Ranjan Jaiswal and Yugraj Shukla, has plans to set up over 2,500 charging stations in Bengaluru alone by 2021; of which 100 charging stations will be set up by December-end. So far, five such stations have been put in place at Electronics City. There are about 25,000 electric vehicles in the city. A user can charge their electric scooter, 3-wheeler and 4-wheeler. Small business owners can install a kirana charzer for `10,000, and share 20 per cent of the revenue with the company. 

The founders have raised investment from marquee angel investors across India and Europe. Their investors include Rakesh Saraf,  Gaston Bilder, Sunil Kumar Singhvi and Ravindra Reddy. Jaiswal says, “We have been in the EV domain since 2016 with our previous startup FAE Bikes.” He adds that they have partnered with Ninjacart and Zomato, besides also being funded and supported by the Government of Karnataka.

Explaining the research that went into setting up the charging stations, he explains, “We studied global models. While designing the charging station, we specifically took into consideration Indian infrastructure. We had to design a solution that would be compact enough to fit in the available space. It was also important that it should work with basic electricity connection, while also withstanding extreme weather conditions.”