NTPC Enters Electric Vehicle Charging Business With Charging Stations

With all the talk about India moving to electric vehicles by 2030, there's some good news about the infrastructure supporting this cause. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has ventured into EV-Charging business and has installed first charging stations at its offices in Delhi and Noida. The public sector company said in a statement that it plans to set up many such charging stations across Delhi and Noida, and several other cities as well in the near future.

NTPC's initiative comes a bid to promote clean energy transportation in the country. With the current government's vision to have electric vehicles on road by 2030, the supporting infrastructure will only help realise that dream faster. The switch to electric vehicles will also reduce the country's fuel import costs. Speaking in April this year, Minister of Power, Piyush Goyal had said, "The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country."

More recently, Nagpur became the first city in India to have an electric cab fleet, creating the country's first electric mass mobility eco system with Ola Cabs. For the pilot program, about 100 Mahindra e2o Plus, and around 100 e-Rickshaws from Kinetic were supplied to Ola Cabs, which will start the service in Nagpur, soon. The program, if successful will be implemented in other cities as well.

While the electric vehicle revolution is still at a nascent stage, the government has also been encouraging for international car-makers to bring electric vehicles in India. American electric automaker Tesla has been invited time and again, while Nissan too has been considering to introduce the Leaf EV in India, and could arrive later this year or in 2018.