Low cost electric vehicle charging to come soon: Govt

The Centre on Wednesday said it is working on to create an innovative, low-cost electric vehicle charging system which will not only be affordable, but also offer rapid scaling up of charging infrastructure across India.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India, in close co-ordination with Niti Aayog team has worked in fast-track mode to develop specifications, prototype products, and undertake testing and validation of the proposed standards. These will be formally issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), said a statement from the Niti Aayog.

This Low-Cost AC Chargepoint (LAC) allows up to 3 kW of power to be drawn for charging eScooters and eAutorickshaws. The user’s smartphone will communicate with the LAC via low-power Bluetooth and links up to a back-end where payments and analytics are enabled. The user’s smartphone can be used for multiple accounts and payment options, said the statement.

Several Indian manufacturers are already on board to make this Charge Point Device, as per Indian Standards, with target prices starting as low as Rs 3,500. The LAC device is intended to be highly scalable and deployed in any place where a 220V 15A single phase line is available – mainly targeting parking lots of metro and railway stations, shopping malls, hospitals, office complexes, apartments and even kirana and other shops, the statement said.

The draft Indian Standard has been taken up by the BIS Committee on Electromobility Standards. The formal release of the standards will be done within next two months, after completion of field and durability trials of sample products. It is expected that a new industry sector will emerge catering to the high volume, low-cost charging infrastructure for EVs.

"The emphasis on charging points rather than costly charging stations has led to the accelerated efforts by the team for developing the LAC Charging standard for the light electric vehicles segment, as the next logical step," Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said.

Cities, towns and villages in India will soon be able to benefit from an innovative low-cost Electric Vehicle (EV) charge point that can accelerate the adoption of Electric 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers. A forthcoming Indian Standard will allow a rapid scaling up of EV charging infrastructure that is much needed in the country, said the statement.