India is likely to get nearly 150 smart electric vehicle (EV) charging stations over the next 12-18 months. This was announced during the launch of a smart EV charger at the SCOPE Complex in New Delhi on Monday.
The EV charger was installed by Fortum India, a wholly owned subsidiary of clean energy company Fortum Ovi. The charger will be powered by electricity from NTPC Ltd, the largest power generator in the country.
The charger is able to identify authorized users (owners or drivers of electric vehicles) using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. All they have to do is flash their smart cards at a specific point on the charger before recharging their vehicles. Necessary power cost will be deducted from the balance in the smart card.
“The energy landscape in India is undergoing a major shift towards cleaner means of generation and consumption. E-Mobility paves the road ahead with great impact on cleaner cities and reduce fuel imports as well. Keeping this in mind, we are in the process of exploring possible ways to put up charging stations across all NTPC stations and also in discussion with a few states,” A K Gupta, director (commercial & operations), NTPC Ltd, said to TOI during the launch.
Fortum intends to work together with NTPC for developing, operating and managing charging infrastructure for electrical vehicles (EVs) in India. Both the entities will also jointly explore ways to work towards collaborating further on EV charging ecosystem in India.
