Fortum-NBCC and ABB pledge to build EV charging stations in India

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The Indian government is bringing opportunities for automobile manufacturers and associated electric vehicle (EV) service providers. The government has planned to switch to EVs by 2030.

The government will buy 10,000 electric sedans through state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. As a first step. Tata Motors Ltd. and Mahindra will supply 500 cars in the first phase.

In an interview with pv magazine, Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director at IESA, said: “With better tariff structures and use of the right storage technologies in EVs, we could also use EVs as distributed storage and provide grid balancing services.”

 

Fortum and NBCC

Fortum, Finland’s clean-energy company, has signed a MoU with National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) Ltd, India for developing EV charging stations across India. The agreement will cover all major activities in the value chain, from planning and designing to making the investment and operating the charging infrastructure using the cloud-based system.

Demonstrating its charging station, Fortum has installed one 22 kW AC charger as a pilot at the NBCC premises in New Delhi, which shall be operated using Fortum’s cloud-based system. The charging station was inaugurated by Finland’s Minister for Housing, Energy and the Environment, Kimmo Tiilikainen in the presence of Anoop Kumar Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, NBCC.

“Charging solutions with reliable hardware and software as well as responsive customer support are crucial to the end-user experience. We have developed Fortum Charge & Drive to meet these demands, paving the way for the more widespread and efficient use of EVs,” Arto Räty, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs & Communications, Fortum Corporation said.

India is the first country outside Europe where Fortum has ventured its Charge & Drive space. Starting with this pilot in New Delhi, Charge & Drive plans to roll out more than 150 charging stations over a period of the next 12–18 months.

Fortum Charge & Drive is a pioneer in EV charging and has a network of 1,480 smart chargers in Europe, of which 500 are DC quick chargers.

 

ABB

ABB India, meanwhile, has submitted a bid to provide 4,500 charging points across India, mainly in metro cities, as part of the Indian government’s tender to procure EVs, the Bloomberg Quint has reported.

Sanjeev Sharma, managing director of ABB India, said: “India not only needs to consume green but also generate green. That would require enough EV manufacturers in the country. Right now, there is just Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra. We need global majors to come in as well so that consumers have a choice.”

ABB India is in talks with original equipment makers to supply the EV charging infrastructure.

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