New Delhi: The Union and state governments should link a defined share of their future support for public electric vehicle (EV) chargers to verified uptime and performance, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said in a briefing note released on Wednesday. The note also calls for cutting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on public charging from 18 percent to 5 percent, which would bring it in line with the rate on EV purchases.
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Titled 'Improving the EV charging experience in India: Beyond charger deployment', the note is co-authored by Charith Konda, Lead Energy Specialist at IEEFA, and Dhruv Garg, Energy Finance Analyst at IEEFA. It argues that the next phase of India's EV transition will depend on making charging more reliable, affordable and accessible.
"Charger uptime and reliability, not just the number of chargers, are essential to the EV charging experience," Konda said. "India has installed a meaningful number of charging stations, and now the next phase is about ensuring those chargers work reliably, making payment and access seamless, and ensuring home charging is not left to the discretion of individual housing societies."
The note uses Delhi as a case study and draws on inputs from charge point operators (CPOs), Delhi's power distribution companies (DISCOMs) and EV users. It groups its recommendations under three heads: convenience, cost and ecosystem enablers.
The recommendations follow a period of rapid growth. According to the note, annual EV sales rose from about 50,000 vehicles in 2016 to around 2.5 million in the 2025-26 financial year. Public charging stations grew more than tenfold over a shorter span, from 5,151 in 2022 to 52,718 by July. IEEFA credits Central and state subsidies, regulatory reforms and simpler administrative processes for that expansion.
Sales have picked up pace this year. Monthly EV sales in July rose 63.2 percent year-on-year to 307,752 units, and the note links the faster growth in 2026 to the West Asia crisis and the rise in fuel prices that followed. Adoption rates, however, remain in the single or low double digits in most vehicle segments. In July, the EV adoption rate was 11.2 percent for two-wheelers and 7.9 percent for cars. Across all vehicle categories combined, it was 12.7 percent.
Union and state subsidies have so far gone mainly into capital support for installing public chargers, the note says. That support has raised the number of installations but has done little to keep chargers working. The note cites a 2024 IEEFA study, which found that nearly 84 percent of chargers examined in a representative sample across South, Central, West and East Delhi were not working. EV users still complain about broken public chargers, particularly at petrol stations and other public properties, it adds.
To qualify for support under the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) scheme, public chargers must be commissioned, energised and connected to the National Unified Hub, officially called Unified Bharat e-Charge. They must also report their location, availability, charging price and payment access. IEEFA argues that commissioning and digital registration alone do not show whether a charging station is available and reliable.
It, therefore, proposes tying a defined share of future support, such as land concessions, capital support or viability gap funding, to verified maintenance and charger performance. The conditions could cover charger uptime, successful charging sessions, interoperability, maximum fault-resolution times and public disclosure of tariff and availability data. Where public support has been provided, open access for all users could be a further condition. The note also recommends a programme to re-service and upgrade every public charger installed with capital subsidies. That programme would be backed by incentives or mandates for minimum uptime at all current and upcoming public chargers.
The note also identifies interoperability as a pain point. Charging hardware and software protocols have been standardised in recent years, it says, but drivers still juggle multiple apps and wallets to charge across networks. As a result, users end up with leftover balances spread across different wallets. Platforms such as Statiq and myHyundai are partnering with CPOs so that drivers can charge across networks. IEEFA says the government could issue clear guidelines, or even a mandate, for a unified payment system across charging networks.
Home charging is a harder problem in the multi-household, high-rise buildings common in cities. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs updated the 2016 Model Building Bylaws to recommend EV charging provisions in new residential and commercial buildings, with at least 20 percent of parking spots EV-ready. According to the note, these remain guidelines rather than enforceable mandates.
Delhi's EV policy encourages resident welfare associations (RWAs) and housing societies to support community or private charging. The city has also set up a DISCOM-led single-window system, through which consumers can pick empanelled vendors, get new EV electricity connections or meters, and schedule installations. Residents of existing buildings still face barriers, the note says. RWAs can refuse requests to install chargers, citing disputes over parking, wiring in common areas, or concerns about safety, aesthetics and shared costs.
To address this, the note proposes a 'right to charge' for residents with designated parking spaces. Under such a right, legitimate requests for safe charger installations could not be arbitrarily blocked. The installations would still have to meet technical and safety standards.
The 18 percent GST on public charging significantly adds to costs for EV owners who cannot charge at home, according to the note. In some cases, it says, charging can cost as much as running a compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle. Cutting the rate to 5 percent would ease that burden, IEEFA says.
Grid work is the other big cost. Upstream grid upgradation can easily make up 50 percent of the total cost of setting up a public charging station, the note says. That is a heavy burden for many CPOs, which are not yet profitable because their chargers see low use.
PM E-DRIVE has set aside Rs 2,000 crore for public charging infrastructure. The allocation also covers support for battery swapping and charging stations, including upstream components such as transformers, high-tension and low-tension cables, protection equipment and civil works. The scheme can fund up to 100 percent of charging infrastructure at government premises with free public access. At government-controlled public locations, it can cover 80 percent of upstream infrastructure and 70 percent of charging equipment.
IEEFA's own rough calculation suggests the Rs 2,000 crore would pay for about 18,811 charging points under the policy target mix, assuming a 100 percent subsidy for both upstream infrastructure and chargers. That is less than 2 percent of the 1.32 million public chargers the note says India needs to reach its vision of 30 percent EV adoption by 2030. The note recommends treating upstream grid upgradation as an infrastructure cost, financed separately at a concessional long-term rate. It says this would improve CPO finances and speed up charger deployment.
As EV sales rise, a significant share of transport energy demand will shift from oil and gas retailers to DISCOMs, the note says. It calls on transport departments, transmission and distribution utilities and power sector regulators to work together on a comprehensive grid-readiness plan. Such a plan would map expected charging demand at e-bus depots, taxi hubs, delivery clusters, e-auto stands, logistics centres and public parking facilities. It would also set out available capacity, required upgrades and connection timelines. The note adds that steps are needed to avoid delays in DISCOM approvals and permits.
The note sees battery swapping as especially useful for commercial fleets of two and three-wheelers, because it cuts downtime and upfront costs. Swapping services currently attract 18 percent GST. IEEFA recommends cutting this to 5 percent, the rate that applies to fixed batteries.
Finally, the note recommends well-structured time-of-use (ToU) tariffs to move charging to off-peak and renewable-rich hours.
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"ToU tariffs can be a powerful tool in making EV charging work better for the power system," Garg said. "By encouraging users to charge during off-peak and renewable-rich hours, ToU tariffs can shift demand away from conventional evening peaks, reduce pressure on the grid, make better use of clean energy and help lower overall system costs."