CESL to expand EV charging reach on 16 highways 

Convergence Energy Services (CESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) under Ministry of Power has dteremined the prices for setting up 810 electric vehicle charging stations (EVCSs) across 16 Expressways and National Highways covering 10,275 kilometres across the country.

 The selected corridors include busy routes such as the Mumbai-Pune highway, Ahmedabad-Vadodara Highway, Delhi-Agra Yamuna Expressway, Eastern Peripheral Expressway, Hyderabad ORR Expressway, and Agra-Nagpur Highway to name a few, CESL said in a statement on Thursday.

 Seen as an industry first, CESL is using a service procurement model for setting up these charging stations involving the private sector in building India’s electric mobility ecosystem. 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 is expected to help electric car consumers to take their cars out for long-haul journeys, whilst also creating the ground conditions for setting up other ancillary services to offer commuters. These charging stations are expected to be established in the next 6-8 months, the statement reads. 

Putting up charging infrastructure on highways is part of the FAME-II scheme administered by the Ministry of Heavy Industries Industries to promote and establish a network of e-highways across the country.  These electric vehicle charging stations will be designed to cater to both private and public vehicles including ones on the roads  today - such as Hyundai Kona, Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV & other compatible EVs and e-buses.  Providing fast DC connectors, CESL will install 590 chargers of 50kW capacity and 220 chargers of higher 100kW capacity.

The chargers with 50kW capacity will be available every 25 kilometres and the 100kW chargers every 100 kilometres. Customers will be able to access these charging stations through a mobile app which will provide information about nearby charging points, their availability, charger type, ability to schedule reservations/charge without reservations, charging tariff, and other types of information usually wanted by commuters. Customers can charge their EV at a charging station in approximately 40-50 minutes depending on the battery capacity of the vehicles.

CESL Managing Director and CEO, Ms. Mahua Acharya, said, “CESL is working to enable the participation of private enterprise and markets in building India’s electric mobility ecosystem. The use of Government subsidies such as in FAME II allow such a leverage to be achieved.”

Acharya added that the feasibility of the park and charge facility to customers across all EV segments will also be explored as part of this initiative. ``The idea of establishing these charging stations is to reduce the electric vehicle range anxiety amongst consumers and encourage them to choose EVs for long haul transport as well. “We want to act as catalysts in India’s energy transition journey and green mobility,” Acharya continued.