Public EV charging units not being utilized fully

Cos planning to put chargers at locations where usage can be maximized

- Ayaan Kartik

India's network of 26,000 public charging points for electric vehicles (EVs) across the country remains grossly underutilized, prompting government and private operators to review their current installed units and examine available data on usage and traffic patterns before setting up new charging units.

According to industry officials and experts, companies are now looking to leverage available traffic and EV penetration data to put up the chargers at locations where the usage of chargers can be maximized, which is currently estimated to be in the low-single-digit range.

"Most charging stations in India currently operate at 4% to 5% capacity utilization. This means the chargers are in use only for up to 2 hours in a day, which is significantly low and implies that on an average one car is charged using one charging point in operating hours," Atul Jairaj, Partner at Deloitte India, said.