India issues revised guidelines for charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): The Ministry of Power, Government of India has issued revised standards and guidelines for charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles to be set up in various cities including highways. The revised specifications and guidelines for charging infrastructure for electric vehicles will supersede the earlier guidelines issued by the Ministry of Power in December 2018.

Minister of Power, RK Singh expressed his hope that the revised guidelines will encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles in India as the revised guidelines are more consumer-friendly as they incorporate several suggestions received from various stakeholders.

According to the guidelines, a phase-wise installation of an appropriate network of charging infrastructure has been envisioned to ensure that at least one charging station will be available in a grid of 3km x 3km in the cities and one such station to be set up at every 25 kilometre on both sides of the highways.

The revised guidelines also reveal that all megacities with a population of over 4 million, and all connected highways, may be considered for coverage in the first phase from one to three years whereas big cities like state capitals, and headquarters of the union territories, may be covered in the second phase from three to five years.

The ministry envisages installing fast-charging stations at every 100 km on each side of the highways to address the matters related to inter-city travel and long-range or heavy-duty electric vehicles like buses and trucks.

Assuming that most of the charging of EVs would take place at homes or at offices where the decision of using fast or slow chargers would rest on the consumers, it has been clarified in the guidelines that private charging at residences or offices will be permitted and DISCOMs (distribution companies) may facilitate the same.

As far as the public charging stations are concerned, the power ministry has clarified that setting them up will be a de-licensed activity, and any individual or entity has the freedom to set up these stations.

Further, the revised guidelines have also specified the type of chargers of different standards (viz. Bharat AC 001, CCS, CHAdeMO, Type-2 AC), ensuring that the charging infrastructure owners have the freedom to install the charging stations as per the market requirement. Click here to read/download the complete revised guidelines for charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles issued by the Ministry of Power, Government of India.