Nearly 10,000 fuel pumps across the country are now offering electric vehicle charging facilities, signalling that traditional energy suppliers are in no mood to be left behind in India’s rapid shift to electric vehicles, The Economic Times reported citing oil ministry data.
The country’s top fuel retailer, Indian Oil, is leading the race in setting up EV charging facilities at its fuel stations. The company installed EV charging infrastructure at more than 6,300 of its fuel pumps. Hindustan Petroleum, on the other hand, has installed charging facilities at more than 2,350 fuel stations, while Bharat Petroleum has 850 plus fuel stations that offer EV charging facilities, the ET report said, citing data from the oil ministry.
Private fuel retailers are also setting up EV charging facilities. This includes Shell and Nayara Energy who have installed around 200 charging stations at their fuel pumps each. The joint venture of Reliance Industries and BP has also set up EV charging facilities at its 50 fuel stations, the ET report said.
Government push for more charging stations
To encourage the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the government has been pushing state-owned oil companies to build a reliable network of charging stations to help EV drivers and quell range anxiety. The government sees EV adoption as a crucial step in decreasing costly fuel imports alongside reducing pollution.
To this end, the government has mandated that all petrol pumps set up after 2019 must have one alternate energy supply besides petrol and diesel. The alternate fuel could be CNG, biogas, or EV charging facility. Indian Oil, HPCL, and BPCL together, are aiming to set up charging facilities at 22,000 pumps and have achieved about 40 per cent of this target. EV charging facilities are being set up in both cities and highways.
Responding to a question about EV infrastructure in the country, BPCL told ET, “BPCL has launched more than 90 EV fast-charging highway corridors in the country, with fast charging stations at roughly every 100 km on both sides of the highways. Corridors cover more than 30,000 km (both ways) across highways. Chennai-Trichy-Madurai, Chennai-Bengaluru, and Bengaluru-Coorg were the first three EV fast-charging corridors set up by BPCL,” the ET report said.
