Lack of awareness is reason for not many EV charging stations in districts in Karnataka other than Bengaluru

Officials from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), which is the nodal agency for EV adaptation in Karnataka, attributed the low numbers in the districts to the lack of penetration of EVs in rural areas. 

Karnataka recently took pride in the fact that it has the highest number of public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations (5,059) in India. While Bengaluru Urban district has 4,281 and Bengaluru Rural district has 192 EV charging stations, no other district has even crossed the 100-mark. 

Bengaluru is followed by Dakshina Kannada (73), Mysuru (57) and Belagavi (50) in terms of highest number of EV charging stations. In fact, in many districts, the number is in single digits.

Officials from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), which is the nodal agency for EV adaptation in Karnataka, attributed the low numbers in the districts to the lack of penetration of EVs in rural areas. 

“People in Bengaluru are more aware of EVs. The city has EV showrooms compared to other districts. Most importantly, more people in Bengaluru can afford an EV, which costs more than an ICE vehicle,” Mathapathi M. A., Deputy General Manager, EV, Smart Grid and EV Cell told The Hindu.  

Those from other parts of Karnataka agree that not much has been done from the government’s end to create awareness about the benefits of EV usage. While only 265 stations out of over 5,000 have been set up with capex by various escoms, 195 of them are in the jurisdiction of Bescom. Mangaluru escom (Mescom) has set up 57 stations, Hukkeri escom (Hescom) has set up 12 stations, and Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (CESC) has set up one station, and Gulbarga escom (Gescom) has not set up any. 

“EV sellers should write to the local escoms asking them to set up charging stations. Currently, only tech-savvy people are using EVs in some places outside Bengaluru, like north Karnataka. There is not much publicity, but we are hopeful that the market will gradually expand. Bescom should bring in EV sellers, and organise seminars in other regions of the State to create awareness about EVs,” said K. C. Nayakawadi, former managing director, Gescom. 

Mr. Mathapathi said that with private companies being the major players in installation of charging stations, many of them often do not submit their data to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s (BEE) EV Yatra portal, which can be another cause for awareness about stations in other districts.