WHY EV CHARGING INFRA ROTS

INDIA'S EV PUSH FACES THE GRIM REALITY OF NON-STANDARDISED CHARGING STATIONS, POOR MAINTENANCE, POWER AND PAYMENT OUTAGES.

- KARAN DHAR & ASTHA ORIEL

RAJIV CHOWK, the heart of New Delhi, has over a dozen electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, installed by government-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL). Almost all are non-functional. Reasons vary from no power supply and broken displays to missing guns. While the colonial white facade of Rajiv Chowk got a fresh coat of paint before the G20 Summit this year, the chargers remain dirty, some even smeared with paan stains. The charger on Sansad Marg, less than a mile from the new Parliament building, has no gun. The space in front has been occupied by a street vendor. The condition of chargers outside Prime Ministers’ Museum And Library (formerly Nehru Memorial Museum And Library) is no different. In South Delhi, out of 10 charging stations that Fortune India visited, only four, near Safdarjung Enclave and Delhi Haat, were operational. Those in Green Park, Lodhi Garden, IIT-Delhi and Bhikaji Cama Place were not.

The dysfunctional charging ecosystem represents just what all is terribly wrong with India’s EV infrastructure—lack of coordination between the Centre and charging infrastructure players, between vehicle makers and Centre, between Centre and states or even among government departments. It’s not uncommon for EV users to find a dysfunctional charger or, worse, a charger that’s working but is incompatible with the vehicle. An even bigger nightmare is to find it functional and compatible but unable to accept payment due to server crash. Anything and everything is possible in today’s EV charging scenario, leading to perpetual range anxiety. EV sales cannot remain immune to a messy charging infrastructure.