Fuel Retailers To Ramp Up Charging Infrastructure For Electric Vehicles

As India announced at the COP26 Glasgow climate summit, its plan to take the share of renewables in the country's energy mix to 50 per cent from the existing 38 per cent by 2030 to cut down carbon emissions, the three major oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum have unveiled plans to set up electric vehicles charging stations across the country in the next few years.

This decision not only highlights the changing scenario in the Indian automobile sector, but also reflects the government's intent to switch to a more cleaner alternative, keeping in mind the dangerous impact of global warming on planet earth as a whole and the need to find a substitute to petrol and diesel.

The announcements by the country's largest fuel retailers, which control 90 per cent of petrol pumps, to set up charging stations, came just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chalked out plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070 at Glasgow on November 1, 2021.

Government of India already plans to have private cars take 30 per cent share of total electric vehicles sales, commercial vehicles corner 70 per cent and two as well as three-wheelers take 80 per cent share by 2030.

Keeping in sync with these policy decisions, the three OMCs have rolled out plans to set up charging stations in various parts of the country in the next few years.

Accordingly, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will set up 10,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the next three years. It is planning to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its operations, the company's chairman Shrikant Vaidya had announced this on November 3, just two days after the Prime Minister's Glasgow announcement.

On the same day, Bharat Petroleum also announced a plan to set up electric vehicle charging infrastructure at its 7,000 petrol pumps in the next few years.

Hindustan Petroleum in September this year, had said that it will set up 5,000 electric vehicles charging stations in the country in the next three years.