India's EV Revolution is Running Out Of Charge As Infrastructure Struggles Continue

“I used to carry my charger everywhere I went,” Rajnikanth admits candidly. “It took me a long time to get rid of that charge anxiety. Probably for the first two years, I carried my charger everywhere.”

For Rajnikanth, relying on public charging stations was unthinkable at first. "I don't think anybody is buying a vehicle assuming that there is a charging point right across the road," he said bluntly. But eventually, necessity pushed him towards public chargers. Over time, he began trusting the network just enough to occasionally use them — but only with caution. To this day, however, Rajnikanth primarily charges at home using a portable charger, keeping range anxiety at bay by using his own power source at home.

Rajnikanth’s cautious approach is not unique — it's reflective of a deeper, widespread scepticism towards India’s fragmented electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

India’s Charger Shortfall Problem

According to a February 2025 report titled Charging Ahead-Part II by GameChanger Law Advisors and Speciale Invest, India currently faces a troubling mismatch with public charging infrastructure. With a ratio of just one public charger available for every 135 electric vehicles on the road. This is significantly behind the global ratio of having one charger for every six to 20 electric vehicles.However, this is still a slight improvement compared to 2023, when India had a ratio of approximately one public charger for every 172 electric vehicles on the road. This is based on over 1.5 million EVs sold in 2023 and 8,738 operational public charging stations in the same year, according to data released by the Ministry of Power.

As India accelerates towards its ambitious goal of having 30% of new private vehicle registrations electric by 2030, equating to a staggering 80 million EVs, the numbers laid out in the report reveal that unless things speed up significantly, the country may miss this mark. India must swiftly ramp up to approximately 3.9 million public and semi-public charging stations by 2030 to sustain the targeted growth, maintaining at least one station per 20 vehicles.

According to the government data shared in Parliament by the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Steel, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, India currently has just 25,202 public chargers — a fraction of the required infrastructure to support future demand. This story is a follow-up to The Core's previous reporting on why investing in public charging infrastructure remains unprofitable in India, a problem that persists over a year later.

Industry Claims vs Ground Reality

This massive discrepancy isn't lost on industry insiders. Raman M, CEO of ChargeMOD, a public charging infrastructure provider, told The Core "The target of 3 million chargers by 2030 is quite high. Although research might support this requirement, the way I see it, the counter still lacks reliable access to high-voltage supply for building so many charging stations.”

To further investigate this discrepancy, The Core examined publicly available targets set by various OEMs, EV manufacturers, and charging station startups, including Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Ola Electric, MG Motor, and Ather Energy. Collectively, these industry players have publicly announced ambitious plans over the past two years to set up well over 4,30,000 charging points between 2027 and 2030 — although some overlap and potential double-counting of chargers cannot be ruled out.

The Core reached out to all the OEMs named above and will update the article if and when they respond.

However, when measured against India's broader EV ambitions, even these industry commitments fall short. To meet the government's goal of 3.9 million charging stations by 2030, India must install over 4,85,000 new charging points annually — a daunting task considering current rates of deployment.

Several industry stakeholders that The Core spoke to pointed to outlined critical hurdles that are currently stalling large-scale public charger deployment. The most pressing issues, they said, aren't merely technical but economic — centred around profitability, high setup costs, and persistent low utilisation rates of existing infrastructure. Shreshth Mishra, co-founder of electric scooter startup Simple Energy, explained why the company hasn't rushed to invest heavily in public charging networks.

"Nobody wants to build public charging stations right now because you don’t have utilisation, nobody’s coming to charge because everybody charges at home. Public infrastructure is expensive, and maintenance alone costs lakhs per charger every year. It's not profitable and won't be for years," said Mishra.

He said that even four-wheeler EV chargers, which are expected to see higher usage, struggle with dismal utilisation rates of just about 12-14%.

Talking about why EV chargers are underutilised, let's get back to Deepak's range anxiety dilemma. Rajnikanth primarily uses his Ather 450X scooter for daily office commutes and local errands, restricting himself from spontaneous long-distance rides due to uncertainties around public charging stations. He explained that while he's gradually begun trusting the charging infrastructure, the limited availability still dictates his travel plans.India’s four-wheeler (4W) EV owners also face a similar reality. TheCore previously reported on how most 4W EV users actively seek ways to charge vehicles at home, opting for private chargers at their apartments, office parking lots or even installing dedicated charging setups at home to avoid the hassle of using unreliable public stations. This again reduces the demand for public chargers, reinforcing a cycle where low utilisation discourages further investment in infrastructure.

"I wish there were more public chargers at places like malls, restaurants, and highway stops," Rajnikanth said, pinpointing exactly where India's EV infrastructure is falling short.

Several startups are attempting to simplify the discovery of the nearest charging stations. A co-founder of a mapping and location intelligence startup that worked on a pilot project aimed at mapping every public charging station in Delhi-NCR, said they were forced to abandon the project midway because the data they gathered was simply too unreliable to be commercially viable.

The startup's goal was to aggregate data and offer it via APIs to major global mapping providers such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, HERE Maps, and MapmyIndia, among others. It seemed a perfect idea — allowing EV users real-time visibility of charger availability and operational status.

"Many charging stations listed online either don't exist or are simply inaccessible," the co-founder told TheCore on the condition of anonymity since he was not permitted to disclose this to the media.

Their on-the-ground reality check revealed several disturbing issues. Many charging stations existed only in online databases — not physically — or were non-functional due to vandalism or missing equipment. In some cases, small business owners hosting these chargers routinely switched them off to avoid soaring electricity bills. Even interoperability proved to be a nightmare, with no single platform reliably providing comprehensive data about all active chargers.

The mapping project's failure pointed out a much more worrying conclusion: many chargers publicly counted in corporate and official tallies may only exist digitally.

Multiple OEMs, electric vehicle manufacturers, and charging infrastructure startups have made several ambitious claims in their press releases and media interviews regarding the number of charging stations installed across India. Analysing publicly available data from 13 prominent companies, The Core found these firms collectively claim to have already installed around 96,916 charging stations nationwide — though some degree of overlap and double counting may exist.

This figure is starkly at odds with data officially released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) in the Rajya Sabha just a few weeks ago. According to a written reply by the Minister of State, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, the actual count of public EV charging stations installed across India as of February 2025 stands at just 25,202.

This glaring discrepancy raises critical questions: Which figure truly reflects the reality on the ground — the industry's claims or the government's official numbers? This mismatch is far from trivial as it potentially affects India's ambitious EV adoption goals.

"The reality is many of these charging stations exist only digitally. We found stations listed online that simply weren't there on the ground — either they never existed, or they were broken or inaccessible. Without accurate, real-time data, it's impossible for consumers or even policymakers to know what's really out there," added the co-founder of the mapping startup quoted earlier.

Big Money, Little Change

Meanwhile, investor enthusiasm in India's charging infrastructure ecosystem continues to grow. According to the Charging Ahead-Part II report by GameChanger Law Advisors and Speciale Invest, investor confidence in India's EV charging sector has steadily improved over the past few years. Between 2020 and 2024 alone, over 50 Indian startups have collectively raised nearly $511 million across 128 funding rounds, as per data sourced from Tracxn.

In addition, Bain & Company’s 2024 India Private Equity Report also noted that Investments dedicated specifically to EVs and charging infrastructure grew steadily at 20% annually from 2021 through 2023, signalling a clear but cautious investment into EVs and charging infrastructure by the private sector.

On the government front, substantial efforts have also been made to catalyse the EV transition. The Ministry of Heavy Industries initially allocated Rs 1,000 crore under the FAME-II scheme specifically for charging infrastructure, though this amount was later reduced to Rs 839 crore in 2024 as priorities shifted. In addition, the government unveiled an ambitious Rs 10,900 crore ($1.3 billion) scheme under PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE), aiming to further incentivise EV adoption and infrastructure in the country.

Reliable Charging Infrastructure Matters

Considerable financial backing and ambitious policy initiatives seem to have done little to further India’s plans for an electric future for automobiles. Industry players said that India's EV charging infrastructure was still years away from achieving widespread reliability and profitability, leaving users like Rajnikanth continuing to grapple with the daily uncertainty of range anxiety.

Industry insiders argue that government incentives, subsidies, and substantial financial commitments rarely materialise effectively on the ground.

Raman M of ChargeMOD highlighted several practical challenges faced by charging infrastructure providers. Acquiring suitable land for chargers remains difficult due to prolonged bureaucratic processes and slow regulatory approvals. India's existing electricity grid often struggles to effectively supply the high-voltage power required for fast chargers.

"Utilisation is still low — stations don’t make money unless heavily used. Maintaining uptime is expensive — technical issues, theft, and vandalism increase costs," Raman told The Core, underlining the economic realities behind India's slow charger rollout.

Industry insiders, including Raman and Mishra, further emphasise that installing a single fast charger can cost upwards of Rs 1 lakh, while annual maintenance expenses run into multiple lakhs. Mishra said investors remain hesitant, adding, "Investors and OEMs don’t want to take losses — even Tata and Ola have slowed down. Government policy, although it has a huge investment outlay, is still unclear — no strong incentives to build more stations."

Simple Energy, a large player in India's two-wheeler EV segment, has refrained from investing heavily in public charging infrastructure because of these financial and policy uncertainties. However, Mishra indicated that if government subsidies successfully bring down capital expenditure costs, the company might reconsider investing in its own charging network.

Mishra also sees potential in leveraging the vast existing networks of public-sector oil companies. "I want oil companies like IOCL, BPCL, and HPCL to host more EV chargers," he said, suggesting a practical pathway to scale quickly.

He was optimistic about EV adoption, predicting it will rise to 30-40% by 2030, which, according to him, will ultimately make investments in charging infrastructure economically viable.

India's electric mobility aspirations stand at a critical juncture. The stakes are high — climate targets depend on cutting transport-related emissions dramatically, and electric vehicles are key to this transition. But as Rajnikanth's personal struggle vividly illustrates, EV adoption hinges on one critical factor: reliable and abundant charging infrastructure.

To truly unlock India's EV revolution, stakeholders, including the government, industry, and investors alike, must urgently address infrastructure gaps.