Delhi Will Have 100 EV Charging Stations, 900 Charging Points In Two Months: CM Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that more than 100 EV charging stations will be built in Delhi within the next two months. The charging stations will include 900 charging points.

In an event on Tuesday, Kejriwal inaugurated 11 charging stations in Delhi. These stations include 12 battery swapping points and 73 charging points. The minister has promised that the city will get 100 EV charging stations in the next two months. They will include 900 charging points and 103 swapping stations.

The minister claimed that EVs are more economical than traditional petrol or CNG vehicles. He stated that electric scooters will only cost 7 paise per km, electric three-wheelers will cost 8 paise per km, and electric cars will cost 33 paise per km.

Kejriwal said, “In the last two years, Delhi has emerged as the first state where EV adoption rates have reached double digits with an average of 10% in 2022, and even crossing it over the period. In the last two years, over 70,000 EVs were bought in Delhi.”

So far, Delhi has a total of 29,000 EV charging points and 250 battery swapping stations. These stations can be accessed in public areas near theatres, malls, and metro stations, where people can park their EVs for charging. 70 percent of the charging stations will be set up in Delhi Metro sites.

Kejriwal tweeted that Delhi’s adoption of EVs in the past two years has left even New York and California behind. He added that the city will get a large number of charging and battery swapping stations in the future, which could make Delhi the “E-Vehicle Capital” of the world.  

As for the country-wise EV charging infrastructure, the government of India has assigned CESL (Convergence Energy Services Ltd) with the job of installing over 800 charging stations across 16 highways in the country. The CESL is a state-owned company and will be working with private sector firms on this project.