The Government of India has approved a Rs 503.86 crore budget for the installation of 4,874 new EV chargers. These chargers will be set up across India – Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Government-owned oil agencies, including Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Indian Oil (IOCL), and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), have been green-flagged to install these EV chargers.
- Total approvals include 1,243 new EV chargers for Karnataka
- Upcoming chargers to support e-2W, e-3W, e-4W, e-trucks and e-buses
- 8,932 EV chargers already installed under the FAME-II scheme in India
New EV chargers approved: All you need to know
New approvals are part of the PM E-Drive scheme
Speaking at the National EV Charging Conference in Bengaluru, union minister of Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy announced that the total proposals include an allocation of 1,243 chargers in Karnataka, costing Rs 123.26 crore. Kumaraswamy further added that the upcoming chargers will support EVs across segments, including two-, three- and four-wheelers, as well as buses and trucks.
This charging infrastructure is part of the PM E-Drive scheme, which has a total financial outlay of Rs 10,900 crore to promote electric mobility and develop the EV ecosystem in India. Of the total outlay, Rs 3,679 crore has been earmarked as purchase incentives for EVs, Rs 2,000 crore for developing the charging infrastructure, and Rs 780 crore for modernising and upgrading vehicle testing agencies. A budget of Rs 4,391 crore has been allocated to dispatch over 14,000 new electric buses across the country.
New app being developed to ease finding and paying for an EV charger
The union minister revealed that an all-new ‘Unified Bharat e-Charge (UBC)’ app is being developed, which would enable EV users to discover, access and pay across charging networks of multiple operators through a single interface. Kumaraswamy stated that the upcoming platform would have a UPI-like impact for EV users.
It has been disclosed that under the FAME-II scheme, oil manufacturing agencies have installed 8,932 EV chargers across the country, for which subsidies worth Rs 873.5 crore were disbursed.