Highest electric vehicle adoption in Chandigarh, still no charge in stations
Dushyant Singh Pundir
Chandigarh, October 21
Despite the highest adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the lowest charging tariff in the country, the city’s infrastructure is still not ready for the EV push. Twentythree charging stations installed in November last year are still non-operational.
During the recent launch of EV-Ready India Dashboard (evreadyindia.org) by Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy RK Singh, the ministry stated that city reported the lowest public charging supply tariff at Rs 3.6/kWh, 73% lower than the national average of Rs 13.74/kWh. As per the dashboard, Chandigarh also reported the highest adoption of EV vehicles in the country in September this year. Of the total sales of new vehicles in the city last month, 14.95 per cent were EVs. As many as 578 EVs were sold in the city last month, which was 10.9 per more than the sales in August. Similarly, the sales of EV jumped to 149.1 per cent in September in comparison to the vehicles sold in the same month last year.
However, due to the impasse between the Municipal Corporation and the UT Administration over installation of charging stations in parking lots, the 23 charging stations installed are yet to be made operational.
During a recent meeting to the General House, the MC had refused to allow installation of EV charging stations in parking lots under it.
Instead of approving the administration’s directions, the House decided to form a committee to decide the further course of action. The committee will comprise councillors, officers of the building and roads wing, Chandigarh Renewable Energy, Science & Technology Promotion Society (CREST) and members of market welfare associations.
The committee will discuss the entire project and any objection to the selection of sites by the market welfare associations will also be considered. However, the market associations are not in favour of EV stations in the parking lots of congested markets.
The UT Administration had notified the Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy on September 20 last year. However, the public charging facility is still not available to the consumers. An official of CREST, the nodal agency for the implementation of the EV policy, said the charging stations were ready and these would be made operational soon.
The UT installed these charging stations at nine locations across the city in November last year. These stations will have a total of 92 charging guns and an equal number of vehicles can be charged simultaneously.
The official said work on the installation of 44 more charging stations under the “Chandigarh developer mode” at various locations was underway and eight stations had been installed at various places, including multilevel parking in Sector 17, parking lot at the Elante mall, parking area of the Mani Majra car bazaar, the Madhya Marg in Sector 26 and the parking lot of the Sector 44-D market. According to the policy, the direct incentive will be applicable for a policy period of five years or till the time the administration decides otherwise.
New buyers purchasing a new electric car or hybrid vehicle between September 20, 2022, and September 19, 2027, will be eligible for direct incentive, subject to the number of electric vehicles to be incentivised as per the policy.
EV-Ready India Dashboard
During the recent launch of EV-Ready India Dashboard (evreadyindia.org), the ministry stated the city reported the lowest public charging supply tariff at Rs 3.6/kWh, 73% lower than the national average of Rs 13.74/kWh. As per the dashboard, Chandigarh reported the highest adoption of EV vehicles in the country in September this year.
MC-Admn impasse also to blame
Owing to the impasse between the MC and the administration over installation of charging stations in parking lots, 23 charging stations are yet to be made operational. During a recent meeting, the MC House had refused to allow installation of EV charging stations in parking lots under it.
