Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has announced that it will invest Rs 2 billion to ramp up electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in India. BPCL will set up 100 fast EV charging corridors having 2,000 stations along the busiest 100 national highways in this fiscal year .
In February 2022, the company launched its first EV charging corridor along the Chennai-Trichy-Madurai highway with charging infrastructure installed at 10 of its gas stations. Along the 900 km route, the company has installed additional charging stations. The second corridor will come up on the Kochi-Salem section of National Highway 47 within the next two months. The third corridor is expected to come on Mumbai-Bengaluru highway with multiple charging units because of high traffic on it.
As per the company’s statement, a charging station that does not require a booster transformer will cost Rs 0.7-1.2 million to set up and will include amenities such as restrooms, beverages, and a food court. Furthermore, a transformer-dependent unit could cost as much as Rs 2.5 million. By the fiscal year 2025, BPCL intends to deploy approximately 7,000 fast EV charging stations across India.
