India is scaling its electric vehicles targets. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India, in close coordination with the NITI Aayog team had taken on a challenge to provide affordable EV charging infrastructure.
A committee involving all the key stakeholders including EV manufacturers, auto and electronic component suppliers, power utilities, and communication service providers 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). The formal release of the standards will be done within the next two months, after completion of field and durability trials of sample products.
V Sumantran, Chairman, DST-PSAO Group on Charging Infrastructure stated “Affordability constraints in India demand that we address problems keeping in mind both cost and scalability.”
Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said, “the emphasis on charging points rather than costly charging stations has led to the accelerated efforts by the team for developing the Low-Cost AC Chargepoint (LAC) Charging standard for the light electric vehicles segment, as the next logical step”.
Targets for affordable EV charging infrastructure:
- The group had set a target price of less than Rs 3500 ($50) for a smart AC charge point operated with a smartphone, for a global breakthrough in affordable EV charging infrastructure.
This LAC allows up to 3 kW of power to be drawn charging eScooters and eAutorickshaws.
- The user’s smartphone will communicate with the LAC via low-power Bluetooth and link up to a back-end where transaction payment and analytics are enabled.
- The user’s smartphone can be used for multiple accounts and payment options.
- 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.
