India is attempting to do for electric-vehicle charging what the Unified Payments Interface did for digital payments: create a common network where any EV owner can locate, access and pay at any public charging station regardless of the operator.

That ambition will take centre stage on May 12, top industry sources said when Union Minister for Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy chairs a high-level meeting in Bengaluru with automakers, charging companies, power utilities and state officials to address one of the sector’s biggest bottlenecks—an expanding but highly fragmented charging ecosystem.

Infra mismatch

The urgency is rooted in a structural mismatch. According to data tabled in Parliament, India had 27,737 public EV charging stations installed as of March 2026, of which 22,753 were operational. The network includes about 20,346 slow chargers and 8,805 DC fast chargers, with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh leading in deployment.

Roughly 70–75 per cent of public charging points are estimated to be slow AC and low-power DC chargers such as Bharat AC-001 and Bharat DC-001, designed primarily for electric two- and three-wheelers that dominate India’s EV volumes.

By contrast, the 8,805 DC fast chargers—largely based on CCS2 standards and concentrated along highways and in major cities—have been installed mainly by private operators and automakers to serve passenger cars. Heavy-vehicle charging remains nascent, accounting for less than 1 per cent of the network, or an estimated 500–800 high-capacity chargers at fleet depots and select highway corridors.

Connector Shift

The interoperability challenge is most acute in the two- and three-wheeler market. While electric cars quickly converged around the CCS2 standard, scooters and e-rickshaws evolved through a patchwork of proprietary connectors. Early market leaders such as Ather Energy and Ola Electric built brand-specific charging ecosystems, meaning vehicles from one manufacturer could not use another’s chargers. The turning point came with the Light Electric Combined Charging System (LECCS), or Type 7 connector under IS 17017, a common AC-DC standard now being adopted by manufacturers, including Hero MotoCorp’s VIDA and Matter.

Commenting on the May 12 meeting and the government’s push to expand charging infrastructure, Kausalya Nandakumar, Chief Business Officer, Emerging Mobility Business Unit at Hero MotoCorp, said the industry viewed the initiative as a critical step in strengthening India’s EV ecosystem.

“We appreciate the Government’s consistent support in growing the EV ecosystem and are committed to driving this change in line with the COP26 and Viksit Bharat 2047 vision through rapid, consumer-focused expansion of EV charging infrastructure,” Nandakumar said.

Execution push

The government is seeking to close these gaps through the ₹10,900 crore PM E-DRIVE scheme, under which ₹2,000 crore has been earmarked for public charging and battery-swapping infrastructure. The programme targets 72,300 charging points, including 48,400 charging points for electric two- and three-wheelers, 22,100 fast chargers for passenger vehicles and 1,800 high-capacity chargers for electric buses. While there is no separate allocation for trucks, the bus-charging network is expected to form the foundation for future heavy-duty charging.

However, as of March 23, 2026, no expenditure had been recorded under the charging component, according to a Rajya Sabha disclosure, highlighting the gap between budget allocation and execution. Industry sources estimate that 11,500–12,000 chargers have already been sanctioned or are in the installation pipeline, representing roughly 16–18 per cent of the target.

The Bengaluru meeting has been convened to bridge that execution gap and align automakers, charging companies, utilities and state agencies on how to rapidly deploy a nationwide network that is interoperable, reliable and accessible across vehicle categories.

Industry players have already begun building interoperable networks ahead of the government rollout. Hero MotoCorp said its VIDA business has deployed more than 5,900 interoperable charging points across over 450 cities and highway corridors, along with more than 500 community chargers in residential locations that can be used across vehicle brands and vehicle categories.

A senior Ministry of Heavy Industries official said the government’s objective is to build what he described as “a UPI for EV charging,” where consumers can use any public charger through a common network regardless of ownership.

“The next phase is not about how many chargers we install, but whether any EV owner can access any charger seamlessly, just as any bank customer can use UPI,” the official said.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) is developing a unified “super app” expected to display real-time charger availability and enable booking and payments across stations deployed under PM E-DRIVE.

Amit Bhatt, India Managing Director at the International Council on Clean Transportation, said the real challenge is no longer installation alone but uptime and frictionless access.

“The real test is not how many chargers are installed, but whether drivers can depend on them to work consistently and access them without friction,” Bhatt said.