As the EV (electric vehicle) momentum gathers pace, Tata Power continues to ramp up its charging infrastructure across the country and in the September 2023 quarter, the company expanded its number of charging stations by 22 per cent when compared with the June 2023 quarter.

Now, the company has 4,932 public and captive charging points, of which 561 were added during the September 2023 quarter. With the addition of 11,529 new home charging points in Q2 of this fiscal, the total home charging units stand at 61,959.

Tata Power added 180 e-bus charging points in the September 2023 quarter, marking the highest-ever deployment of charging points for e-buses in a quarter. With this addition, the total e-bus charging points have increased to 464.

As of September 2023, the company had covered 442 cities and towns with its EV charging network, which has more than 1.7 lakh registered users.

In the June 2023 quarter, the company’s total charging points stood at 55,085, including 4,371 public charging points, 50,430 home charging units, and 284 electric bus charging points.

The company has implemented numerous bus charging facilities, ranging from Kashmir to various cities such as Jammu and Srinagar. Additionally, charging facilities are in several other cities, including Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

“I think with widespread bus charging projects, we’ll see more and more public transportation transitioning to EV,” said Praveen Sinha, MD & CEO, Tata Power, during the company’s Q2FY24 earnings call.

Recently, Tata Power joined hands with Zoom Car to offer seamless EV charging infra solutions.

While barriers such as price, choice, and range in the EV space were being addressed, and there have been tremendous improvements in all those areas, long-term volume growth in EVs would depend solely on the availability of adequate charging stations.

“The biggest impediment to the growth of EVs has been the charging infra. The very fact that 93 per cent of people charge at home indicates that they are currently comfortable driving in cities. However, we anticipate a drastic increase in public charging, especially on highways in the next two years or so,” according to Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility.

“A mainstream buyer will only buy an EV when he or she feels comfortable traveling on highways, he added.

While Tata Power and several other charge point operators have chalked out aggressive expansion plans, the oil marketing companies’ plans to set up 22,000 charging stations on the country’s highways by 2024 will pave the way towards making EVs mainstream.

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