India Inc looks to plug into EV-charging infrastructure at work

Firms offering such vehicles as car lease options, converting their fleet into EVs

India Inc is slowly playing a part in improving electric vehicle (EV) adoption by providing EV-charging infrastructure at work, offering such vehicles as car lease options, or converting their own fleet into EVs.

Sample this: The Godrej & Boyce campus has four EV-charging points; HSBC is looking to offer EVs as part of its car-lease benefits; and logistics player FedEx is converting its parcel pickup and delivery fleet into zero-emission vehicles by 2040.

Kartikey Hariyani, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Charge+Zone, an EV-charging infrastructure company specialising in high-speed charging networks, said the firm was getting more queries by the day from companies, including real estate developers, to install charging networks on their premises.

“We recently executed a project for Brookfield in Gurugram, where we created the infrastructure for 36 cars to charge on its premises. We get calls from real-estate developers like malls and multiplex owners and corporate groups to install such infrastructure. We call this destination charging. The year 2023-24 is going to be a phenomenal one for us and we expect three times growth in the number of installations. We aim to set up 10,000 charging points this year,” Hariyani told Business Standard.

It has set up over 3,000 fast DC (direct current) charging points across 815 stations, serving around 5,000 vehicles a day.

A Godrej & Boyce spokesperson said: “Currently there are four EV-charging points on Godrej & Boyce campus. This is accessible to over 25,000 occupants. Only a fraction of the occupants are using them because demand is low. However, this number of charging points is expected to increase in the near future in line with demand.”

Archana Chadha, HR head, HSBC, said: “We are looking to offer EVs as part of our car-lease benefits and are sure our environmentally conscious colleagues will find this a great opportunity to invest in EVs, not just as a second car but possibly even as their first family car.”

Hariyani said as firms focused on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, the time had begun for EVs.

Suvendu Choudhury, managing director (international operations), FedEx Express, said: “Through a phased approach, we are working to transition the entire FedEx parcel pickup and delivery fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2040. Recently, we introduced 30 EVs in our Delhi operations, and have installed the vehicle charging infrastructure and technology in our Delhi facilities. The plan is to bring more EVs into our network across India.”

He said part of the company’s commitment to sustainability was enabling “our workforce to be part of that change and inspiring them to seek out more sustainable solutions on their own day to day, like the growing interest in EVs from our team members, for instance”.

FedEx is converting 50 per cent of its global pickup and delivery vehicle purchases into electric by 2025, increasing it to 100 per cent by 2030.

 

Cab operators are also joining the bandwagon. Recently Kolkata-based e-cabs brand Snap-E tied up with Charge+Zone to set up charging infrastructure for 2,000 electric cabs with 200 DC and 1,000 AC (alternate current) stations.

Mayank Bindal, co-founder and CEO, Snap-E, said in the pilot phase it would operate 2,000 e-cabs in and around Kolkata.

The next phase will be an addition of 3,000 vehicles, which will be backed by a proportionate number of charging stations. The Kolkata roll-out will be followed by a phased launch across other important cities of eastern India as well. As a business strategy, Snap-E will focus on both corporate tie-ups as well as consumer commutes.

“We have handheld several Indian companies to switch to e-commute for their employees and we believe everyone deserves the comfort of an executive class commute,” Bindal said.

The Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study, 2023, showed 33 per cent of consumers in India were looking for EV-charging stations with amenities like coffee, beverages, wi-fi, washrooms, and quick snacks. Around 13 per cent of consumers preferred to charge at parking lots, while 21 per cent were open to charging at traditional gas stations.

Around 10 per cent of consumers said they were open to charge anywhere as long as they could find a charger.