BESCOM plans 150 Electric Vehicle Charging points for Bengaluru by the end of 2020

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Published on February 27, 2020 by

Bengaluru, currently has 100 A.C and 26 D.C EV charging points located in 12 different parts of the city.

25 February 2020, Bengaluru
By Ambalika Banerjee

BESCOM has planned to install more electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the city within the next six months. The civil body plans on installing 150 more Electric vehicle charging points in the city. These charging points will be manned and available within the BESCOM premises.

Vishal S, Assistant Engineer of Smart Grid and Electric Vehicle section of BESCOM mentioned, plans for new stations are in the pipeline. It takes almost two hours to charge to get the electric two-wheeler charged. But for the existing charging points, we expect more utilization from two and three-wheeler vehicles. Karnataka has been allocated with 172 more charging stations. Once it goes for review they will announce the final number during March. Once the participants and implementing agencies are finalised, it will take approx.6 months to in action. The stations should be ready and open for public use by the end of this year, he added.

Bengaluru currently has 100 A.C and 26 D.C charging points located in 12 different parts of the city. Though the utilisations of these stations are minimal, owners of EV voice their request for more charging points. Siddhartha Mishra, owner of Mahindra e2o said finding charging points in the city becomes challenging at times. He mentioned, “When it comes to performance and maintenance it’s pretty good, however, the problem lies in terms of charging the vehicles. Charging stations are not easily found when we are in search of one. Fuel stations for diesel and petrol vehicles come handy. The charging stations are hard to locate and even when you locate they are mostly A.C charging points, which are slow for electric cars.

Dayananda, Electric vehicle driver from the city complains about the problem with longer rides with these vehicles. He said, “Since the charging is slow with A.C adapters, it takes 8 hours to completely charge my vehicle. Longer rides are tedious due to the lack of enough charging points in the city. The current A.C adapters only facilitate slow charging process in comparison with the chargers at BESCOM.

Around 16 automobile companies sell EVs, of which only Ather Energy offers private charging points for vehicles. Anil Bhaskaran, an urban planner in the city mentioned the need for a futuristic city planning which accommodate decentralised stations at malls, park and public parking lots. He added, “Batteries are quickly evolving technologically which will support faster-charging capabilities with more mileage on road.
Though there is an increase in the number of Evs due to the FAME scheme under the Department of Heavy Industry, the future of the automobile industry is forecasted to be with hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.

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