ABB India is working with electric vehicle (original equipment manufacturers) OEMs to create charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
According to The Indian Express, the company is running pilots with nine OEMs, ABB India country MD Sanjeev Sharma said. While the company did not disclose the names of these OEMs, Sharma said almost all OEMs are testing e-vehicles and they were working with 10 of them. Every five electric vehicles sold will have one charger behind it — that is the kind of potential that the vehicle charging business has, Sharma said. He expects the Indian market to take off when the tipping point is reached — which would be when the battery prices drop and OEMs start reporting a significant percentage of sales coming from electric vehicles. Whether vehicles will come first and then charging stations come up, or first the charging infrastructure comes up and then vehicles sales follows, is a chicken and egg situation, he said.
But till such time, the focus is on working with policymakers on standards and testing their chargers, Sharma said. There is lot of work to be done and it requires public spaces and power infrastructure behind the charging stations, he said. He was okay with no specific electric vehicle policy as it left the sector open to all technologies and options, he said. Right now, e-vehicles are a viable model for fleet and cab owners, he said. “We are stoking the imagination of different players,” Sharma said. The company is exploring with potential buyer segments such as shopping mall owners, utilities, airports and office building and developers for the fast charging stations, he said.
ABB has electric vehicle charging manufacturing facilities in Bengaluru. Power electronics is common to solar power equipment as well as electric charging infrastructure, so it will be built in the Bengaluru manufacturing plant. For ABB, automotives and renewables are going to drive growth. “Going forward, we will see growth from the utility and transmission segment,” Sharma said. He was in Pune for ABB’s supplier meet, with 49 SME companies participating. About 25% of ABB’s suppliers are based in Maharashtra.
