First CharIN India Conference sees experts debate on combined charging system for EVs

The nascent electric mobility industry in India is suddenly witnessing a spurt of activity. The latest has been Ather Energy’s announcement of 30 EV charging stations in Bangalore today.

Earlier this month, on May 11, at the India Habitat Centre, the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), a registered association with almost 130 members along the whole value chain from all over the world, hosted its official CharIN event in India in cooperation with the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as well as the VDA (the German Association of the Automobile Industry).

With 110 participants from India and international EV markets, the first CharIN India Conference held in New Delhi to promote the future of e-mobility in India saw experts debate the Combined Charging System (CCS).

Anil Shrivastava of NITI Aayog, the chief guest for the conference, lit the ceremonial lamp along with A K Saxena (TERI), P K Banerjee (SIAM), Marius Ochel (VDA) and Dr. Isabell Schwenkert (CharIN). He delivered a keynote on India’s ambitions to move to electric mobility. This was followed by a welcome note given by the Bjorn Grozinger, First Secretary Industrial Affairs of the German Embassy in India.

L-R: MD of CharIN India Sivam Sabesan, AK Saxena, Wybren van der Vaart, Sumantra Barooah, Dr Tapan Sahoo and Volker Blandow

Technical presentations were given by Alekhya Datta, TERI about ‘Grid-integration aspects for enabling Electric Vehicle Charging in India’; Dhivya Kumar, ABB India, on ‘High Power Electric Vehicle Chargers’; Pankaj Batra, Central Electricity Authority on ‘Grid side Issues for Electric Vehicle Charging’; Pang Hai, Neusoft Reach Automotive about ‘Implementing CCS on vehicles’; Joerg Heuer, EcoG GmbH about ‘Smart EV charging with CCS’ and Volker Blandow, TUV SUD with the title ‘Overview of Asia EV market and conformance testing’.

In addition, Selvam Kandaswamy from Mahindra & Mahindra and CharIN SC member spoke about ‘Choosing a charging standard for Indian vehicles’, and Saurabh Rohilla from SIAM gave an Indian market outlook for EVs and Marius Ochel from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA e.V.) presented their Indian activities.

The highlight of the event was the panel discussion with the title ‘Opportunities and Challenges in the Indian market for EV Charging’ moderated by Sumantra Barooah, executive editor of Autocar Professional. The panelists were A K Saxena of TERI, Manuj Khurana of Invest India, Dr Tapan Sahoo from Maruti Suzuki India, Wybren van der Vaart of Asia Electric, and Volker Blandow representing TUV SUD.

All participants saw the conference as a good opportunity to get an overview of the technical side of EV charging powered by CCS and the constitutional background concerning the EV market and EV charging infrastructure in India. In addition to this, participants were also satisfied with the event for networking opportunities with numerous industry experts not only located in India but also in other countries in Asia and Europe.

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