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NITI Aayog encourages Maharatnas to set up charging stations, adopt to EVs
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government aims to have EVs comprise 30% of new private vehicle registrations, amounting to 8 crore EVs, by 2030
The NITI Aayog on Friday held a meeting with the Maharatnas to encourage the public sector companies to set up maximum number of charging stations and adopt to electric vehicles (EVs), in a bid to reduce India’s carbon footprint.
“As far as electric mobility is concerned, this is in national advantage and that is why it has been given a thrust, they are in their (Maharatnas) own way trying to work on this and we just wanted to understand, and what they are planning and how they are going ahead with. Lot of good number of fleets is there with Maharatnas and so we wanted how they propose to go about it. It was all positive,” said NITI Aayog advisor Sudhendu Sinha, who chaired the meeting.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government aims to have EVs comprise 30% of new private vehicle registrations, amounting to 8 crore EVs, by 2030. To support this dramatic rise in EV adoption, India will need a total of 39 lakh public and semi-public charging stations, for a ratio of 1 station per 20 vehicles and the country will need a total of 46,000 charging stations. The current ratio, approximately 1 charging station per 135 EVs, is significantly lower than the global ratio of 1 charging station per 6 to 20 EVs.
Speaking on the points raised by the Maharatnas on the transformation of their fleet, which is already leased out to them, Sinha noted that the companies raised how their adoption to EV would not only be limited to smaller vehicles but also to their machines and equipment.
“Some of them are working for oil marketing companies and in the stream of charging infrastructure and so we just wanted to have a stock take of the initiatives that they are taking on their own and see if we can synergise it and create some cross pollination of ideas,” Sinha said.
Sinha also revealed how Coal India Limited, who were also a part of the meeting, had raised how their vehicles would have to travel to more intense areas like mines and where conditions were not suitable and how their requirements were limited to SUVs.
“Not only that, a lot of government organisations and offices are changing their machines from ICE/gasoline based to electric. Maharatnas are also doing it, and they are doing it in a little more aggressive way and that is very positive. Their reactions and action plan for this particular stream is very positive. So NITI Aayog wanted to see what more enablers could be there and how further we can have more clarity on the road maps,” he added.
