The government wants automobile manufacturers to take a bigger role in developing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and could explore assigning highway corridors to individual companies to ensure reliable charging coverage, Heavy Industries Secretary Kamran Rizvi said.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries has identified 60 high-priority corridors that need assured charging infrastructure and has shared the list with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Rizvi said.
He suggested that SIAM could coordinate with automakers to divide these corridors among companies and build sufficient charging infrastructure for electric cars, buses and trucks.
“The OEMs need to do more on getting charging infrastructure ready across the country,” Rizvi said.
“We can assign highways to companies and we can saturate them for the electric four-wheeler, truck, bus manufacturers,” he added.
Rizvi's remarks indicate the government wants vehicle manufacturers to become more directly involved in solving one of the main bottlenecks to faster EV adoption, the availability and reliability of public chargers.
₹2,000 Crore Available for Charging Infrastructure
Rizvi said the Ministry of Heavy Industries has a ₹2,000-crore corpus for charging infrastructure, which could also be made available to vehicle manufacturers.
The aim should be to ensure that important highways have adequate charging coverage over the next two to three years, according to Rizvi.
Rizvi presented the idea as a proposal for the industry rather than announcing a formal corridor-allocation programme.
OEMs Cannot Treat Charging like Petrol Pumps
Rizvi said vehicle companies may have so far assumed that the charging ecosystem would emerge independently, much like the network of petrol pumps that developed around internal-combustion vehicles. But he argued that EV charging is fundamentally different.
“I think the SIAM members need to get their act together on electric charging,” he commented. “We have left this charging business to charging companies. Because probably we are inspired by the petrol pumps, that car companies never set up the petrol pump.”
Rizvi said setting up an EV charging station is a much simpler business than developing the supply chain required to bring petroleum into the country, refine it and distribute it through filling stations.
He therefore wants automakers to take greater responsibility for ensuring that the infrastructure required to use their electric vehicles is available.
Reliability Remains a Concern
The issue is not merely the number of charging stations, Rizvi said. Their reliability is equally important. He cited feedback from EV users who find multiple chargers listed along a route but discover that several are not operational when they arrive.
“There were 50 charging stations shown on the way. But half of them are not working,” Rizvi said, recounting customer feedback received by the government.
That concern was also echoed by Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister, during the SIAM event on Thursday.
Kapoor said oil marketing companies had made a reasonable effort to install charging infrastructure, but low utilisation and poor maintenance were affecting reliability.
“People are not using, they don't get maintained and if they don't get maintained then people don't get to use,” Kapoor said.
He said professional operators would increasingly be needed to maintain charging networks.
Charging Critical for Electric Trucks
The infrastructure push becomes more important as the government looks to accelerate electrification of heavy vehicles.
Kapoor said trucks are now one of his main concerns because diesel consumption must decline if India is to reduce its dependence on imported petroleum.
He said better highway charging could also help manufacturers reduce battery sizes and vehicle costs.
“Charging has to come up along the highways,” Kapoor said, referring to the 60 corridors highlighted by the Heavy Industries Ministry.
If charging is available at shorter intervals, manufacturers and fleet operators could potentially use smaller battery packs or develop other operating models, he said.
Rizvi also said electric trucks are beginning to show “green shoots”, though deployments under existing government support remain limited.
He said the economics in some heavy-duty applications are becoming increasingly favourable and argued that electric trucks could see significantly faster adoption over the next five years.
Bus Network Could Also Support Charging Expansion
Rizvi sees a large opportunity in electric buses as well. He said electric bus demand is growing and that 160 cities are expected to have electric buses over the next two to three years.
Those cities will also have charging depots, which could eventually be opened to private operators, creating additional charging infrastructure for the commercial vehicle ecosystem.
For automakers, Rizvi's message was that selling electric vehicles may increasingly have to go hand in hand with ensuring customers can reliably charge them.
“Each station by itself is a stand-alone business,” he said, arguing that the charging challenge is manageable if manufacturers and the government work together.