10,000 EV chargers in next 3 years: IOC's aim to boost India's EV infrastructure

India's leading oil manufacturing company Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) has decided to join the EV bandwagon by offering to set up electric vehicle charging stations across the country. The company has announced that in order to help widen India's EV infrastructure, it will install 10,000 EV chargers across the country by 2024.

The announcement was made today by Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation, who said, “2000 EV charging stations will be established in the next 12 months and another 8000 in the next two years to achieve target of 10,000 EV charging stations in the next three years."

India's top oil firm IOC, which controls over 40 per cent of India's diesel-dominated petroleum product market, has been remodelling its business amid a greater push for cleaner energy by the Centre with focus on electric vehicles and cleaner fuel.

"Eventually we intend to become energy company of India and not just be restricted to selling petroleum products. The world is changing. We intend to set up EV charging points and battery swapping stations at our petrol pumps alongside offering auto-LPG and conventional fuels. So it will be a bouquet of offering," Vaidya had said in an interview earlier.

Stepping into the business of electric vehicles is not going to be new for the IOC. The company has already set up EV-charging points at 76 of its petrol pumps and battery-swapping facilities at 11 more outlets. It is also evaluating different advanced battery technologies and intends to set up a metal-air battery-manufacturing facility for EVs as well as for stationary applications.

Apart from conventional fuel like petrol and diesel, IOC also retails cleaner fuel like CNG. IOC has also established itself as the second-largest player in natural gas in India with a licence to retail CNG and piped cooking gas in 40 Geographical Areas.