MG Motor sets up Agra's first electric vehicle charging station

MG Motor India has partnered with Tata Power to set up the first electric vehicle charging station in Agra, Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The EV charging station was inaugurated at MG Motor's Agra Showroom as part of the recent NH for EV2020 trial run of battery-powered vehicles from Delhi's India Gate to Agra on Wednesday.

After inaugurating the EV charging station, MG Motor said that it will be open for customers all through the day, seven days a week.

The charging station set up by MG Motor in Agra is a 60 kW superfast EV charging station. This will help customers travelling between Delhi and Agra on an electric vehicle drive without bothering about running out of juice. The 230-kms distance between Delhi and Agra via the Yamuna Expressway can be covered without recharging by all the electric four-wheelers available in India currently.

MG ZS EV, MG Motor's first and only EV offering in India so far, can be replenished by up to 80 per cent within 50 minutes with the help of the DC Fast Chargers, like the one installed in Agra.

Gaurav Gupta, Chief Commercial Officer at MG Motor India said, "The launch of the EV trial run from Delhi to Agra by the Government of India is a strong step towards adoption of EVs in our country. With the culmination of the trial run taking place at MG Agra Dealership, where we today also inaugurated a fast-charging station in partnership with Tata Power, citizens here will be able to access the public charging facility. We are also actively forging partnerships with key charging enablers such as Tata Power and Exicom to further expand the EV ecosystem across the nation."

India is looking at ramping up its infrastructure for supporting EVs here and while a lot of focus presently is on installing charging stations in big cities, the need for more and more highways to provide support facilities is also being felt in order to calm range-related anxieties.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road, Transport and Highways, recently outlined how the central government plans to have one EV charging station for every 69,000 fuel pumps in the country. "Battery charging ecosystem is very important...government is planning set up at least one electric vehicle charging kiosk at around 69 thousand petrol pumps across the country to induce people to go for electric mobility," the minister was quoted as saying.