India needs 46,000 EV charging stations to match China, US in EV infrastructure

India needs to pick up speed to catch up with other countries in terms of electric vehicle infrastructure in the country, especially when it comes to EV charging facilities. While efforts are on to set up thousands of EV charging stations, both through government and private initiatives, a white paper released on Friday suggests India is still a long way before it can match with other countries.

According to the white paper, released by a global professional services firm called Alvarez and Marsal, India needs to install at least 46,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the next eight years to get closer to countries like China or United States. Currently, India's EV charging station ratio with number of electric vehicles on road is way too low compared to these countries.

The white paper, which was launched at an event on EVs, gave an idea about the global average when it comes to EV infrastructure. In China, world's largest electric vehicle market, there is one electric vehicle charging station for every six EVs. Though smaller in population and number of EVs, Netherlands too has similar ratio. The only other country which is comparable to India in terms of population is United States. There is one EV charging station in US for every 19 electric vehicles. In case of India, the ratio is disproportionate with one EV charging station for every 135 electric vehicles.

Besides lack of EV charging stations, the white paper also highlighted other challenges like high prices, range anxiety, safety among reasons why EV adoption is slower in India. "We believe that if these issues can be addressed by a concerted effort by the industry along with the government support, India can potentially become one of the leading markets and manufacturing hubs globally for the EV segment." Manish Saigal, Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal India, said.

Sudhendu J Sinha, Adviser on Infrastructure Connectivity and Electric Mobility at Niti Aayog, said, “It is vital that the quality standards are top-notch, the businesses must have better control over the supply chain, and ethics should be the unshakable backbone of the industry." He also said that India wants to become the top EV manufacturing hub in the world and lead the export sector for EV batteries and other components.