Charge+Zone to install over 5,000 fast DC EV charging stations by 2025 – EQ Mag Pro
In an interaction with Express Drives, Kartikey Hariyani, Founder & CEO of Charge+Zone revealed that the company will install over 5,000 fast DC EV charging stations in India by 2025.
Electric Vehicles are gradually getting popular in the Indian market. However, the infrastructure for EVs in the country is still in a nascent stage and there’s a long way to go. To boost the EV ecosystem in India, several new-age private players are working incessantly in tandem with the government agencies and other industry leaders. One such company is Charge+Zone.
Founded in 2018 by Kartikey Hariyani, Charge+Zone is a technology-driven electric vehicle charging network company headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat. It claims to be on a mission to establish one million EV charging points in India by the year 2030. To know more about Charge+Zone’s business prospects and future plans, we interacted with Kartikey Hariyani, Founder & CEO, Charge+Zone.
Q1) Can you share an overview of Charge+Zone and its journey so far since inception?
Charge+Zone was born out of the vision to accelerate India’s transition to green mobility. With the EV industry gaining significant traction and projected to grow at 43.13% CAGR by 2030, the need for robust nationwide charging infrastructure is imperative to help India achieve its EV goals. Our aim was to provide full-stack EV charging solutions across multiple cities and states that are accessible, affordable, and easy to use.
Over the last years, Charge+Zone has evolved into a tech-driven EV charging infrastructure company that specializes in B2B and B2C charging services catering to both dedicated and opportunity-based charging, using smart-grid networks. At Charge+Zone, we have been progressively investing and developing large EV charging hubs for various e-mobility companies such as Ashok Leyland, and GreenCell Mobility among others.
Q2) How many EV charging stations are currently installed by Charge+Zone in India?
Charge+Zone has an active B2B and B2C network for EV charging stations for both fleet and retail customers with over 1,450 charging points across 700+ EV charging stations. They serve around 5,000 EVs on a daily basis. The company also operates on a dealer-operated company-owned (DOCO) model for the charging points. Going forward, we are working on a separate vertical for battery swapping while we await further policy guidelines from Niti Aayog.
Q3) Share some recent developments related to the company and achievements?
Charge+Zone says that they have made multiple interventions in personal and public mobility. The most recent developments include the deployment of 20 unmanned app-driven EV charging points over 2,500 kms along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Rajkot, Mumbai-Pune-Shirdi-Nashik, and Agra-Delhi-Jaipur national highways. These charging stations have been installed as part of the company’s larger goal of electrifying 10,000 km of highways over the next 2-years.
The company partnered with various state departments and powered 500+ electric buses through its nationwide network of 125+ fast DC charging points in cities such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Patna, Lucknow, etc, with plans to extend the network to other cities as well. They are also associated with Marriott International to deploy fast EV chargers at their hotels at more than 100 properties across the country for electric cars in a phased manner by December 2022.
Q4) Charge+Zone’s expansion plans and how many EV charging stations do you plan to open in FY22-23?
As part of the initial phase, Charge+Zone shall continue to build the EV charging station network with over 5,000 fast DC charging stations by 2025 and in the current FY23, there would be a minimum of 1,000 charging stations (with 2,500 points) available for electric buses and cars.
Q5) Charge+Zone has raised $15 million from 2018 to 2021. Can you share some details about the planned Series A funding in which you aim to raise $100 million in the near future?
Charge+Zone’s Founder says that setting up EV charging stations is a capex-driven business with multiple stakeholders in the ecosystem. The company’s Series A round of US $100 million is aimed for the closure by Q3/Q4 for CY23 on a rolling closing basis.
Source: PTI
