India needs to pick up pace to move ahead with other countries in terms of electric vehicle infrastructure in the country, especially when it comes to EV charging facilities. Even as efforts are on to install thousands of EV charging stations through both public and private initiatives, a white paper released on Friday shows that India still has a long way to go before it is on par with other countries.
According to a white paper released by a global professional services firm named Alvarez & Marsal), India needs to install at least 46,000 electric vehicle charging stations over the next eight years to get closer to countries like China or the United States. At present, India’s EV charging station ratio with the number of electric vehicles on the road is very low as compared to these countries.
How many EV charging stations in which country?
This white paper was released at an event on Electric Vehicles. This paints a picture of the global average when it comes to EV infrastructure. There is one electric vehicle charging station for every 6 electric vehicles in China, the world’s largest electric vehicle market. Although smaller in population and number of electric vehicles, the Netherlands also has the same proportion. The only other country that can be compared to India in terms of population is the United States of America. There is one EV charging station for every 19 electric vehicles in the US. In the case of India, the ratio is wide with one EV charging station for every 135 electric vehicles.
Apart from the paucity of EV charging stations, the white paper also highlights other challenges such as high prices, driving range concerns, safety factors that have led to slow EV adoption in India. Manish Sehgal, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal India, said, “We believe that if these issues can be addressed with a concerted effort by the industry with the support of the government, India could potentially become the world leader in the EV segment. Leading market and manufacturing center.”
“It is important that quality standards are top-notch, businesses should have better control over the supply chain, and ethics should be the unshakeable backbone of the industry,” said Sudhendu J Sinha, Advisor, Infrastructure Connectivity and Electric Mobility, NITI Aayog. He also said that India aspires to be the top EV manufacturing hub in the world and lead the export sector for EV batteries and other components.