Tata Power to set up 700 EV charging stations across India by 2021

Tata Power, one of the largest integrated utility energy players in India, expects to make its mark in the electric vehicle (EV) segment by creating a national network of charging infrastructure. The company plans to have a network of over 700 EV charging stations by FY2021, christened EZ Charge.

The company says as the Indian automotive sector emerges from a prolonged slump in sales, the growth in demand for EVs is expected to grow substantially. In FY2019-20, over 150,000 electric vehicles were sold in India against 135,000 in FY2018-19, recording a 20 percent jump in volume sales. Nonetheless, this figures is less than 1 percent of total vehicles sold in the country last fiscal.

In the current financial year, Tata Power says it will work closely with the EV industry to enable India’s large scale migration to clean transportation across all segments including two and four-wheelers.

As part of its plans to help the EV migration in India, Tata Power will be investing substantially to expand its network of smart EV charging points from around 170 now to over 700 by end of the current financial year under the brand name of Tata Power EZ Charge.

Tata Power's Praveer Sinha: "We have been investing in a national network of charging infrastructure and expect to expand this further during the current financial year too."

Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD, Tata Power said, “Despite the protracted slump in the Indian automotive sector, we continue to remain bullish about the future of the country’s mobility business and we believe that large-scale shift to clean mobility is inevitable. With the right policy framework in place, large domestic demand for clean mobility solutions and consistent drop in the total cost of ownership of EVs are strong signs of the direction in which India is moving. Over the last two years, we have been investing in a national network of charging infrastructure and expect to expand this further during the current financial year too.”

Expanding the EV charging reach
Tata Power is also part of Tata uniEVerse (with the participation of other Tata Group companies)  that has also been conceived and developed as a complete e-mobility ecosystem to cater to the future mobility demands that will be strongly anchored on sustainable solutions.

The company has already installed 170 fast and smart-charging points in various usage environments in more than 20 cities  including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad and expects to expand the coverage by March 2021. It also plans to create infrastructure for home charging as well as continue to expand public charging locations like at metro stations, shopping malls, theatres and highways.

Tata Power says it is also in talks with metro rail authorities and municipal corporations for setting up EV charging stations across the country. The company will also be expanding its EV charging infrastructure at Tata Group-owned outlets such as Croma, WestSide, Titan watch showrooms, and Indian Hotels.

The energy company says it has developed a world class platform for EV charging which includes various functionalities for corporates, fleets and individual users of EVs. Through an intuitive mobile app based on this platform, customers locate, navigate, charge their vehicles and also pay for the charging apart from a host of information and analytics available to them.

In the last two years, Tata Power has signed MoUs for setting up commercial EV charging stations at fuel outlets owned by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, and Indraprastha Gas. It has also tied up with Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover India to provide entire charging solutions to them including stations at their locations and home charging for their customers.