Largest electric vehicle charging station in country inaugurated in Gurugram
India’s largest 100-point electric vehicle (EV) charging station for four-wheelers was commissioned in Gurugram on Friday
India’s largest 100-point electric vehicle (EV) charging station for four-wheelers was inaugurated in Gurugram on Friday. The station is bound to attract city residents to switch to electric vehicles in the near future.
The charging station in Sector 52 has a mix of fast and slow chargers and will be able to charge 576 vehicles in a single day. The project was launched by the National Highway for Electric Vehicle (NHEV), a private entity which has expertise in carrying out pilot projects and is working with government agencies and the NITI Aayog. NHEV officials said that the charging station will be a prototype ahead of more such stations on the Delhi-Jaipur national highway and Yamuna Expressway.
The charging station in Gurugram works on a revenue- sharing basis and has 96 operational charging ports for electric vehicles and can serve up to 576 electric vehicles every day.
officials said that one charger takes up to six hours to charge a vehicle and can serve four vehicles in a day and 72 such chargers can charge 288 vehicles every day. “The fast DC chargers can charge a vehicle in less than two hours and can comfortably service 12 vehicles every day at this station. We have 24 such DC 5KW chargers to charge 288 vehicles in a day-night utilisation system,” said officials.
Abhijeet Sinha, the project director of NHEV, said that it will set the standard as a prototype for all the upcoming charging stations. “We are working in a non-commercial manner with government agencies and the NITI Aayog and are also conducting large-scale pilot projects that can be replicated at a reasonable cost across the country,” he said.
NHEV officials said that this will be the largest electric vehicle charging station in the country with 100 charging units. “Prior to this, the largest charging station was in Mumbai,” said Sinha.
Sinha further said that as a pilot project, they will set up 10 electric-charging stations along the Jaipur-Delhi highway with four on each side of the highway and one each in both the cities. “Likewise, eight stations will be set up on the Yamuna Expressway and primarily all these investments will be made by private companies in accordance with the benchmarks set up by government agencies and policies,” he said, adding that the Gurugram station is operated by Alektrify Pvt Ltd.
Last year, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari had said that the ministry was in discussion with foreign companies to build India’s first electric highway between Delhi and Jaipur. E-highways are part of the Union government’s efforts to promote electric vehicles.
Under the NHEV, another 100-point charging station will be inaugurated next month in Sector 86 in the city, Sinha said. “These stations will be able to create infrastructure to meet the demand from electric vehicles across the city,” he said.
Sudhendu J Sinha, adviser (Infrastructure, Connectivity -- Transport and Electric Mobility), NITI Aayog, said, “The charging station inaugurated today fast forwards India’s entry into the electric vehicle era and opens doors for faster adoption of such cars. Not only will this station encourage more people to invest in electric vehicles, but also motivate people to invest in the charging infra business.”