Tata Power to set up EV charging stations at HPCL outlets

“Under the agreement, Tata Power will provide state-of-the-art EV Charging infrastructure at HPCL pumps for EV users who can travel within cities & intercity without any range anxiety,” the firms said in a joint statement on Friday.

This comes in the backdrop of EV prices expected to reach price parity with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles before 2025. Consequently, Indian energy majors are pivoting towards the country’s green economy. A case in point being Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announcing its plans to set up an Advanced Energy Storage Giga Factory.

Tata Power has around 500 public chargers in over 100 cities. HPCL on its part has 18,000 retail outlets.

“Development and availability of electric vehicle for charging infrastructure is a key requirement for the proliferation of EVs in India. The partnership will play a strong role in encouraging EV owners to charge their electric vehicles across various petrol pumps. It is also in line with the Government of India’s National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP), which aims to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure using the latest technological platform along with easy access to electric vehicle for charging points,” the statement said.

The Union government recently modified the marquee Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (Fame) scheme by increasing the incentive for electric two-wheelers to ₹15,000 per KWh and allotted the demand aggregation of electric three-wheeler and electric bus components to EESL. The Centre also extended the Fame scheme, created to curb vehicular emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, by two years till 31 March 2024.

Fame is designed to support the electrification of public and shared transport and help create charging infrastructure. The marquee scheme signals the government’s intent to reduce vehicular emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Money allocated under Fame-2 is to be spent to subsidize 500,000 electric three-wheelers; 1 million electric two-wheelers; 55,000 electric passenger vehicles and 7,090 electric buses.