In a bid to promote EV infrastructure in the country, auto giant Kia has said that it has installed India’s fastest EV charger at one of its official dealerships, Dhingra Kia in Gurugram, Haryana. Kia announced that it will install as many as 15 such superfast EV chargers in 12 cities of the country by August 2022. The EV fast charger comes with a capacity of 150 kW that can easily charge up an EV6 car in less than 42 minutes from 10 to 80 per cent.
“We started with the ambition of making EV ownership aspirational and launched our global best EV – the Kia EV6 in India, earlier this year. To take things further, we’re now incredibly excited to inaugurate the first DC fast charger for passenger vehicles with a 150 kW charging capacity, playing our role in India’s EV growth story,” Myung-Sik Sohn, Chief Sales Officer, Kia India, said during the launch. “At Kia India, it is our constant endeavour to provide a superior customer experience and we believe that such fast-charging solutions will take away issues of range anxiety & charging time that EV owners face. We shall be installing a total of 15 such chargers across 12 cities by August 2022, and are hopeful that such small steps will go a long way in fostering EV adoption in the country,” added Sohn.
Indian EV market has increased threefold in the financial year 2021-22. The industry is anticipated to grow to a massive $23 billion by the end of 2023 and the success can only be realised when there is balanced growth in EV charging stations. The Central Government has come up with multiple schemes such as FAME1 and FAME2 to support the country’s EV industry. These schemes have a focus especially on charging infrastructure.
In 2021, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) announced its plans to install an EV charging station for every 40-60 km on India’s national highways. At the policy level, the country aims for 70 per cent of commercial vehicles to be electric by 2030. NHAI looks to cover 40,000 km of highways with these charging stations by 2023.
