Bharat Petroleum launches 19 EV fast-charging stations at 110 fuel stations

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) on Friday electrified more than 5,000 km highway stretches in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to promote electric vehicles growth.

BPCL, a Maharatna and a Fortune Global 500 company, today announced the launch of 19 EV fast-charging stations at 110 fuel stations along 15 highways in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

As per an official release, the company launched 3 corridors and 19 fuel stations in Kerala, 6 corridors with 33 fuel stations in Karnataka and 10 corridors with 58 fuel stations in Tamil Nadu.

These corridors will connect important religious and tourists destinations with cities, like Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh and Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, Ranganathaswamy Temple, Jambukeswar temple, Vallarpadam National shrine of Basilica, St. Antony's Church, Koratty and Markaz Knowledge City and early sunrise watch at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai and many more.

So far, BPCL has converted 21 highways into electric corridors and going forward by March 2023, 200 highways will be covered with Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers to support and accelerate the EV growth in the country.

These Fast EV Charging Corridors were inaugurated by PS Ravi, Executive Director Incharge (Retail).

Executive Director Incharge (Retail), BPCL, PS Ravi said that the fast chargers are easy to use and be self-operated without any manual assistance though support staff will be availabe if needed.

He said that BPCL has digitalised the entire EV charger locator, charger operations and transaction process through the HelloBPCL app for an online hassle free and transparent user experience.

"We are very humbled in the growth in the state of Kerala. We have decided to keep our best foot forward to reducing the emissions. We would definitely like to help the people in the country," said PS Ravi.

He further added that there is a lot of transition happening in mobility. In electric mobility, our country being one of the leaders particularly in two wheeler technology even in the EV space. The growth in the EV space is very very good. We are expecting sizeable occupation is EV on roads by 2030.

"Our experience of selling fossil fuels through petrol pumps, the customer is basically wants quick in and quick out. When i go for slow charging, this requirement is not addressed. It will happen shortly. We have realised that the consumers have three anxieties. Range anxiety is first. Second one is Discovery anxiety. Since the range is designed, i need a top-up charge, this we call it as a discovery anxiety. Third anxiety is, how much time is going to take charge. Here he wants quick in and like to have a short stay at a maximum of 30 minutes," he said.

"We are now giving a complete solution to the customer is that EV Fast-Charging Corridors. We are launching this from Kochi to Bengaluru, every 100 km, we will be having a charging station on either side of the highway. We are also setting fast chargers. Here our experience from the last one year is that, customer is like to spend around 15-20 minutes," PS Ravi added.

He informed that there is a planning to have more than 7,000 charging stations across the country in two years.

"30 per cent to 40 per cent money only needs to spend as compare to the petrol driven car. Currently one car gets charged at a time in one charging station of 30W charger. We are helping the consumer initially by giving him that confidence," he said.