The Oil Based Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs) And Private Power Companies Are Leading The Way For A Faster Adoption Of Electric Vehicles On Indian Roads
The Electric Vehicle Revolution has taken the centre stage in the Indian Automobile Sector. The Union Government of India has set an ambitious target of 100% electrification in the transportation sector before 2030. The lack of charging stations and range anxiety is a major concern for India’s ambitious goal of 100% electrification before 2030. To solve the problems due to the lack of charging stations in India, the leading Public Sector Undertaking(PSUs) and Private Power Companies have stepped into the Electric Vehicle domain. In this blog, I have explained the initiatives by various Indian oil-based Public Sector Undertaking(PSUs) and the private power companies to ensure faster adoption of electric vehicles in India.
The Initiatives By Leading Oil-Based Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs) For A Faster Adoption of Electric Vehicles(EVs) On Indian Roads
The Government-owned corporations are called Public Sector Undertakings(PSUs) in India. Based on their annual turnover and net worth, the PSUs are classified into Maharatna PSUs and Navaratna PSUs. India has 277 PSUs. Out of these 277 PSUs, there are 12 oil-based PSUs. Three out of these 12 oil-based PSUs have announced initiatives to increase the rate of adoption of EVs in India. In this section of the blog, we will be exploring the initiatives by three leading oil-based PSUs in accelerating the rate of adoption of electric vehicles. The three oil-based PSUs that have announced initiatives to increase the rate of adoption of EVs in India are as follows:
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)
- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL)
- Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)
Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL)
Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL) is a PSU owned by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. The IOCL has its headquarters in New Delhi. It was established in the year 1959. They have been ranked at 212th position on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations as of 2021. It is the largest oil-based PSU in the country, with a net profit of $6.1 billion for the financial year 2020–21.
Indian Oil’s business interests are hydrocarbon value-chain, including refining, pipeline transportation, marketing of petroleum products, exploration & production of crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals. They have also ventured into alternative energy and globalization of downstream operations. It has subsidiaries in Sri Lanka (Lanka IOC), Mauritius (IndianOil (Mauritius) Ltd), and the Middle East (IOC Middle East FZE).
In the year 2020, Indian Oil Corporation Limited(IOCL) joined hands with one of India’s leading battery swapping companies, SUN Mobility to establish battery swapping stations in their gasoline stations in cities like Chandigarh, Amritsar, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Gurugram, and other cities.
On 20th November 2020, the IOCL successfully conducted a ‘Proof of Concept’ feasibility study on zero-emission electric mobility by charging an EV with solar power in their fuel station in Bangalore.
On 24th February 2021, the IOCL announced that they would finalize their plans to establish a GigaWatt scale EV battery manufacturing plant in association with an Israeli firm, Phinergy. They are aiming to manufacture Aluminium-Air batteries. Aluminum is one of India’s most abundantly available materials. They are in talks with leading OEM manufacturers to manufacture OEMs for their batteries.
The Director of R&D at the IOCL, SSV Ramakumar assured that the IOCL Fuel Station would not just offer petrol and diesel but also provide battery-swapping services and electric vehicle charging facilities. The R&D wing of the IOCL has been working on hydrogen, fuel cells, and energy storage batteries for EVs.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited(HPCL)
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) is a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC). Oil and Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC) is under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Government of India.
HPCL was established in the year 1974.HPCL has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharastra. The company was ranked 367th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations as of 2016. The main products of HPCL are petrol, diesel, lubricants, Liquified Petroleum Gas(LPG), aviation turbine fuel, and emulsions.
On 17th March 2021, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited(HPCL) joined hands with Shuchi Anant Virya to establish EV charging stations all across India. Shuchi Anant Virya is a joint venture between Lithium Urban Technologies and Fourth Partner Energy. They own and operate EV charging hubs in Pune and Gurugram.
On 30th July 2021, HPCL had announced a collaboration with the state-run Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) to set up Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in leading Indian cities.HPCL and CESL have signed an agreement to use HPCL Retail Outlets to set up these charging stations in India for 10 years. Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) is a Government Company under the Ministry of Power, India working in energy solutions related to renewable energy, electric mobility, and climate change. These EV charging stations with features ranging from slow-charging to fast-charging would be established in cities like Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Pune.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL)
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL) is an Indian government-owned oil and gas corporation under the ownership of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharastra.
BPCL has two large refineries in Mumbai and Kochi. It is India’s second-largest downstream government-owned oil corporation. It was ranked 309th on the 2020 Fortune list of the world’s biggest corporations.
On 3rd February 2020, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL) launched an electric three-wheeler mobility model titled “e-drive initiative”.
Under the “e-drive initiative”, the BPCL partnered with IIT Madras and Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions for technical support to create a supply of Lithium-ion batteries at the BPCL outlets in Kochi and Lucknow. The electric three-wheelers are called “e-rickshaws” owned and deployed by Kinetic Green Energy in Kochi and Lucknow. Under this initiative, the drivers only pay a rental fee for the e-rickshaw and a fee for the energy is provided by the BPCL. This is indeed a wonderful business model with a win-win situation both for the e-rickshaw drivers and Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions in collaboration with BPCL.
The Initiatives By Leading Indian Private Power To Accelerate The Adoption Of Electric Vehicles On Indian Roads
India is a large country with a population of nearly 130 crores. The Government cannot alone strive to provide electricity to all the Indian Households and commercial establishments. To fill the gaps in the power supply sector, private stakeholders have ventured into power generation and supply. India has a very diverse power sector that depends on conventional and non-conventional sources of energy. Many of these private power companies used to predominantly use fossil fuels(i.e coal and petroleum) for power generation. Over the last few years, these private power companies are working towards using renewable energy sources to produce electricity. Now they are working towards accelerating the rate of adoption of EVs on Indian Roads. In this section of the blog, we will understand the initiatives from two of the most popular private power companies in India. They are as follows:
- TATA Power Limited
- Reliance Industries Limited
TATA Power Limited
TATA Power Company Limited is an electrical utility company under the TATA Group. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. They predominantly work in generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity.
TATA Power Limited was founded by Dorabji Tata on 18th September 1919. It has its presence in India, Singapore, Indonesia, South Africa, and Bhutan. It has a Russian subsidiary, Far Eastern Natural Resources LLC, that has a license for a coal mine in Kamchatka Krai. They have operations in 35 locations across.
The TATA Power Limited has been constantly working towards expanding its electric vehicle charging network in India. In August 2017, they launched Mumbai’s first public EV Charging Station at Vikhroli.
On 16th July 2021, they have joined hands with HPCL to provide end-to-end EV Charging stations. They also joined hands with Hero Electric and Mahindra for setting up two charging stations for electric two-wheelers and five charging stations for electric four-wheelers. Leading EV manufacturers like MG Motor India, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India, and Tata Motors have joined hands with TATA Power for charging infrastructure. TATA Motors has joined hands with them to establish 300 fast-charging stations in leading Indian metropolitan cities.
Currently, they have more than 1000 EV Charging Stations in 92 Indian cities. The company’s accessories are present in all kinds of charging infrastructures like public charging, captive charging, home charging, and workplace charging. They have also deployed various types of chargers like DC 001, AC, Type2, Fast DC chargers up to 50kWh and also up to 240kWh chargers for e-buses.
Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharastra. They have investments in various sectors like energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. It is also the eighth largest employer in India with over 236,000 employees and has a market capitalization of US$245 billion as of October 2021.
Reliance Power Limited is a part of the Reliance Group. They work towards developing,constructing, operating, and maintaining power projects in India and other foreign countries. The company was founded by Dhirubhai Ambani on 17th January 1995. The company has its headquarters in DAKC, Navi Mumbai, India.
On 22nd February 2021, as a part of the Oil To Chemical (O2C) Presentation Reliance Industry Limited proposed that they would become net carbon zero by 2035. They are planning to work with digital, power electronics, advanced materials, and electrochemistry experts to fabricate full-stack electrolytes and fuel cell solutions in India. RIL has announced that they would work on developing the next-gen carbon capture and storage technologies.
Reliance BP Mobility(RBPM) has been actively collaborating with top OEM, technological and platform players for establishing EV Charging Stations cars (B2B fleets and B2C consumers) and buses. In August 2021, RBPM has begun with Battery Swapping trials in Swiggy’s delivery fleet.
Jio-BP, Reliance’s Joint Venture(JV) with British Petroleum(BP) has been working towards improving the EV Charging Infrastructure in India. Jio-BP has entered into a partnership with BluSmart. Blu Smart Mobility is a home-grown company that provides a platform for electric shared smart mobility transportation systems. Under this partnership, Jio-BP will set up EV Charging stations for passenger EVs and EV fleets at suitable locations where BluSmart operates. Under the Jio-BP and BluSmart partnership, the first phase roll-out of the charging infra will start in the National Capital Region(NCR). Jio-BP and BluSmart have announced,
The charging stations will be capable of accommodating a minimum of 30 electric vehicles at each station and will be concentrated in urban areas.
Conclusion
The initiatives towards improving India’s EV Charging Infrastructure by the oil-based PSUs and the leading companies in the power sector will play a vital role in India’s ambitious goal towards achieving 100% electrification in the transportation sector by 2030. As a concluding remark, I would like to say,
The interest towards EVs has been growing amongst the Indian automobile customers because of the rising fuel prices. Range anxiety and lack of charging infrastrucure are some of the major reasons preventing the consumers from adopting Electric Vehicles. Noting with appreciation, the work done by the PSUs and leading companies in the power sector towards improving the EV charging infrastructure in India can increase the number of EVs on the Indian roads. Companies must not only work towards improving the EV charging infrastructure in the urban but also in the rural areas. I am looking forward for many more collaboartions between leading private and public stakeholders towards improving India’s charging infrastrcure.
