Indian Oil To Set Up 10,000 EV Charger In The Next 3 Years

Speaking to the media, Indian Oil Corporation Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya stated that the first 2,000 chargers will be set up over the next 12 months, while the remaining 8,000 chargers will come up over the next two years.

Indian Oil's electric vehicle chargers will depend on the type, feasibility, destination and capacity of the vehicle and the company will set up slow, fast and heavy-duty chargers.

The chargers will be set up on a priority basis with 9 cities across the country - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Pune set to get 231 charging stations over the next 12 months. In the second year of the planned EV charger installation expansion by the IOC, these 9 cities will get another 375 charging stations with another 215 poised to come up in the third and final year.

Indian Oil also plans to set up 944 charging stations in other state capitals across the country. However, the company plans to add more than 5,000 new charging stations on national highways across the country and in other cities across the country.

Indian Oil currently has over 400 battery charging stations and swapping stations across the country. It is this number that will be raised to 2,000 over the next 12 months. The company plans to set up a 50kW charging station every 25 kilometres along with a 100kW heavy duty charging station every 100 kilometres.

Indian Oil's new push for EV chargers comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference(better known as COP26) that India plans to become carbon neutral by 2070. India also made a host of other promises at the COP26 conference — committing to reduce meeting half of all energy requirements from renewables by 2030 and reducing the carbon intensity of the Indian economy to less than 45 per cent of the 2005 levels by the same year.

India also committed to using more renewables by 2030 compared to what had been previously targetted as well as a greater reduction of the nation's carbon emissions by the end of the decade than what had been previously promised.

Addressing the media, IOC Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said that Indian Oil's new initiative is in line with the promises made by Prime Minister Modi at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland. He stated, "The idea behind such promises is to fundamentally enhance the non-fossil energy capacity of the country to 500 Gigawatts by 2030, meeting 50 per cent of the energy requirements by renewable resources by 2030, reduce projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45 per cent by 2030 and targeting net-zero by 2070."

Thoughts On India Oil's Plans To Set Up 10,000 EV Chargers In 3 Years

The initiative by Indian Oil to set up 10,000 EV chargers in the next 3 years is is a good start to ensure that India meets the promises laid out by the Prime Minister at COP26. Let's hope that other major players join this push — be it terms of chargers or new vehicles.