Wednesday, April 06, 2022
By Kamal Swami
Free Charging Facility For EV Owners In Delhi
To cater to the charging problem of electric vehicle owners in Delhi, an EV charging startup named ElectriVa has set up about 40 charging stations in the entire city. It is reported that the electric vehicle owners (cars and two-wheelers) in Delhi can charge their vehicles free of cost at these charging stations from June 1, 2022. The main objective of this initiative is to encourage the use of electric vehicles and to promote the facility of charging at private stations. The charging rates of electric vehicles during morning and evening hours in Delhi are about Rs 10 per unit.
The charging stations established by ElecrtiVa will start their operations at the beginning of June 2022. The electric vehicle owners can charge their vehicles on these stations from 12.00 pm to 3.00 pm daily. The free charging facilities are established at 35 stations located in South Extension, Bikaji Cama Place, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Mayur Vihar, Netaji Subhash Place, South Campus, Nelson Mandela Road, Hauz Khas, Green Park, Greater Kailash, Punjabi Bagh, Rohini, Saket, Shalimar Bagh, and Preet Vihar.
According to Mr Sumit Dhanuka, Founder of ElectriVa, said, “We will provide charging to all commercial and non-commercial EV users for free between 12 noon and 3 pm. By providing free charging during afternoon hours, we want to bolster the EV ecosystem in the national capital. Presently it is important to incentivise public charging to make people switch from fossil fuel to electric vehicles." Moving ahead he also added that their group will establish its charging stations at a distance of every three kilometres across Delhi. It would be interesting to know that three civic bodies have already allotted space for three charging stations.
In the words of Dhanuka,” Public charging will change the charging pattern of EV users if properly incentivised. It should be prioritised and this narrative has to change with the speed in public charging infrastructure work.” He further added that electric vehicle owners can also swap the batteries of their vehicles at these stations. According to Dhanuka, 100 more charging stations will be set up in Delhi in a joint partnership with government agencies.
