Plugging gap: Why 67,000 EV charging points aren't enough for India’s electric dreams

NewsIndia NewsPlugging gap: Why 67,000 EV charging points aren't enough for India’s electric dreams Plugging gap: Why 67,000 EV charging points aren't enough for India’s electric dreams Vijaya Srivastava / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Sep 13, 2026, 18:29 IST According to a landmark study by Rubix Data Sciences released in September 2026, citing baseline projections from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India will need 13.2 lakh EV charging points by 2030 to support the growing number of electric vehicles.

When Siddharth Das, a Delhi-NCR based working professional and long-time motor enthusiast, traded in his petrol sedan for a brand-new electric SUV, he wasn’t just buying a new car. He was also trying to make his daily commute what he describes as "future-ready".But switching to an electric vehicle brought a different kind of calculation."My previous petrol car cost me 10 to 12 rupees a kilometre.

With an EV, even if I use commercial chargers at 15 to 21 rupees per unit, my running cost is just 3 to 3.50 rupees a kilometre. If I could charge at domestic home rates of 8 rupees a unit, it would drop to 1 rupee per kilometre."However, Das faces a problem even before he leaves his residential building."I live in an apartment complex where parking is in the basement, and the society isn’t allowing home chargers due to safety protocol concerns," he explains.His experience shows one of the bigger challenges in India's shift to electric vehicles.

The cars are improving quickly, but the charging system around them is still developing and can be difficult to access. ">As of August 2026, India had 67,657 public charging points across the country including 1,139 battery-swapping station interfaces.

This is in comparison to only 5,000 public chargers in early 2022 and 29,151 in December 2025. That means nearly four out of every five public chargers are concentrated in just 10 states. For EV users in other parts of the country, especially smaller towns and less-developed regions, finding a public charger can therefore be much harder.Power disconnect: Built for scooters, not long-haul trips The problem is not only the number of chargers.

It is also how much power those chargers can provide.Out of the 66,518 non-swapping fixed chargers installed across the country as of August 2026, most are on the slower side:48,709 chargers, or about 73 percent, are rated below 30 kW.15,753 chargers are in the 30–60 kW range.1,513 chargers offer 61–120 kW fast charging.Only 534 chargers provide 121–240 kW, while just nine chargers offer more than 240 kW nationwide.

These figures are important because a charger’s power rating affects how quickly an EV can be charged. A large network may therefore look impressive on paper, but if most chargers are low-power units, drivers travelling long distances may still have to spend considerable time charging.The current charging mix also reflects the kinds of electric vehicles being sold in India.

Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) figures cited in the study show that the switch to electric vehicles is currently strongest among three-wheelers, where EVs have a 60.77 per cent market penetration, and two-wheelers, at 8.88 per cent.Electric four-wheeler passenger cars have a much lower penetration of 5.70 percent.This helps explain why India has a large number of lower-powered chargers.Low-power AC chargers can work well for e-rickshaws, electric two-wheelers and vehicles used mainly for short city trips.

But the same infrastructure is less suitable for electric cars travelling long distances or for heavy commercial vehicles that need to cover hundreds of kilometres.Divide in driver experience: Home charging vs range anxiety For EV owners who have private parking and can install a home charger, everyday use can be relatively simple.

Bishwajeet Kumar Seth, who bought his electric SUV in April 2026, relies entirely on home charging."I have a 7.2 kW charger installed at home," Seth says. "My car has a real-world range of around 550 km with the AC on. When I drove from Delhi to Mathura, I didn't even need to plug in on the road.

At home, it costs me 7 to 8 rupees a unit. At a highway fast charger, they were charging 19 rupees per unit. I thought, why bear double the cost when I don't need to?"But the experience can be very different for people who do not own an EV or who rent one occasionally.

For them, "range anxiety" remains a major concern.Mohammad Sarim, who rented an EV during a trip to Kerala, came away hesitant."I had the car for 12 hours to cover 150 km, but the display showed a total range of 200 km," he shares.

"Being in the outskirts, I didn't spot a single charger. The anxiety of the battery running down made it feel less convenient than a petrol car"Saad Abbasi, a commuter in the NCR region, also says the lack of infrastructure affects buying decisions.

"Unless you live in Central or South Delhi, NCR has limited infrastructure. It's fine for home-to-office daily commuting if you can charge at home, but the moment you travel away from major cities, it becomes an issue."Operator crisis: Empty stations in tier-2, tier-3 towns While EV buyers worry about finding a charger, charging operators face almost the opposite problem: their chargers often do not get enough customers.Data from the Rubix Data Sciences report shows that public chargers across India currently have a utilisation rate of only 1 to 5 per cent.This means that, for much of the time, many public chargers are sitting unused.

That creates a difficult business case, particularly for operators in smaller cities and towns. They have to spend a large amount of money upfront, but may not have enough vehicles using the chargers to recover that investment quickly.

Amit Kumar Sahu, a fuel station owner who operates a public EV charging setup in Giridih, Jharkhand, explains the financial challenge faced by local businesses."In private dealer-owned fuel stations, the entire...