To give a boost to E-mobility in India, a good charging infrastructure setup is needed. CESL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) under the Ministry of Power, is using a service procurement model to set up the charging stations along with private sector participation to build India’s electric mobility ecosystem.
Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), will be installing 810 electric vehicle charging stations along 16 National Highways and expressways across India, covering 10,275km of the road network.
CESL will utilize the public-private partnership model to set up the EV charging network. For this purpose, it will join hands with EV charging solution providers that will invest, install, and operate the charging stations. This project is a part of the FAME-II initiative of the Ministry of Heavy Industries.
Furthermore, the 810 charging stations will comprise 590 units of 50kW DC chargers and 220 units of 100kW DC chargers. CESL will set up 25kW charging points at every 25km and 100kW chargers at every 100km on the assigned highways and expressways. That said, CESL aims to install these chargers in the next six to eight months.
CESL has selected the busiest National Highways and expressways for the EV charging stations installation, such as the Mumbai-Pune highway, Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal/Eastern Peripheral expressway, Agra-Nagpur highway, Ahmedabad-Vadodara highway, Hyderabad’s outer ring road expressway, Delhi-Agra Yamuna expressway, and so forth.
According to the firm, the DC fast charging points will be compatible with passenger and commercial electric vehicles, including the on-sale Tata Nexon EV Prime/Max, MG ZS EV, Hyundai Kona, Kia EV6, Audi e-Tron, and e-Tron GT, Mercedes-Benz EQC, BMW iX, and i4, and the newly launched Volvo XC40 Recharge. In fact, the chargers will also be able to charge electric buses.
The initiative will encourage EV owners to plan long-haul journeys and will create the infrastructure for setting up other ancillary services.
In this public-private partnership model, CESL will partner with companies whose job will be to invest in and operate these charging stations across the expressways and highways.
This tender has achieved the government’s vision to blend subsidy with investment and encourage private investment in the charging stations business.
