Magenta opens India’s largest public EV charging station

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Magenta Power, a Mumbai-based electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions start-up supported by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), has opened India’s largest public EV charging station in Navi Mumbai. 

The facility was inaugurated by Subhash Desai, Minister of Industries and Mining, Maharashtra.

“Maharashtra has been in the forefront of EV development. Under our draft Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy 2021, we aim to bring at least 1,46,000 new battery-operated electric vehicles on state roads by 2025, estimated to comprise about 10% of all new vehicle registrations by that time. We support our very own local start-ups like Magenta to drive the adoption of EV in the state and the country and soon globally,” said the minister.

The first-of-its-kind Magenta public charging station will be functional round the clock with 21 AC/DC chargers for 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and 4-wheelers. 

The station has four DC chargers of 15-50 kW capacity and 17 AC chargers of 3.5-7.5 kW. The fast DC chargers can charge a vehicle in 45 minutes. Further, a parking bay has been developed to allow overnight charging of EVs via a slow AC charger. 

The chargers can be operated through the ChargeGrid App. The app allows online remote monitoring and includes an automated payment gateway, thereby eliminating the need to have a station marshal monitor, maintain, and operate the chargers at the location. The chargers are powered by a combined 40 kW rooftop solar plant.

“The setting up of this public EV charging station in Mumbai is a revolutionary move to support the government initiative of setting up 400,000 charging stations to meet the requirement for two million electric vehicles (EV) that could potentially ply on its roads by 2026,” read a Magenta statement. 

“Currently, as per EV industry body Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, there are 1,800 charging stations in India as of March 2021 for approximately 16,200 electric cars, including the fleet segment.” 

Magenta had recently raised INR 120-crore funding from American philanthropist Kiran Patel. It intends to pump in INR 30 crore to build its charger development and manufacturing unit for India and for exports. This integrated charging plus development plus manufacturing unit will cater to the development and production of the AC chargers along with the streetlamp chargers. 

 

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