NEW DELHI: The heavy industries ministry has begun assessing proposals from state governments and state-run oil marketing companies to install charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EV) under the ₹10,900 crore PM E-Drive scheme, with the aim of disbursing about ₹80 crore by the end of FY26, according to two people aware of the development.
The government has allocated ₹2,000 crore of the scheme’s overall outlay towards supporting the installation of over 72,000 EV chargers. It will cover 70-100% of the upstream costs of setting up charging stations in state-owned premises in cities and on highways, including bringing adequate grid power to the site, and 70% of the cost of actual chargers.
The government roughly halved the benchmark costs of setting up public EV charging stations in 2025 from the 2022 estimates to ₹1.6 lakh for a 12-kW charger, ₹3.4 lakh for a 60-kW charger, ₹5 lakh for a 120-kW charger, ₹8 lakh for a 240-kW charger, and ₹12.5 lakh for a 360-kW charger. These costs are used to calculate subsidies.
“Some proposals from states and some PSUs have started to come in, but the government is currently handholding them to firm up these proposals, and we will look to disburse the full budget allocated towards EV chargers in this fiscal,” one person said, requesting anonymity.
The second person, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said oil marketing companies Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petrol Corporation Ltd (BPCL) have also approached the government with proposals for EV charging subsidies.
“The discussions have centred around finding the most appropriate locations for EV chargers, since grid connectivity and location-specific demand vary across regions, impacting viability of the EV chargers,” the second person said, adding that the allocation towards EV chargers under this scheme for FY26 was ₹80 crore, as per the revised estimates, a figure not made public.
The guidelines to claim the subsidy were finalized in September last year, after which work on the proposals started.
Spending plan
The government assessed that it would spend ₹1,300 crore under the PM E-Drive scheme in FY26, as per the revised estimates in Union budget documents. This would be spent on subsidies for electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and EV chargers.
Email queries sent to the ministry of heavy industries, HPCL and BPCL on 1 March remained unanswered.
EV charging infrastructure assumes importance as it directly reduces range anxiety for EV users, helping the adoption of such vehicles as India sets out to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2070. According to Niti Aayog’s India Electric Mobility Index 2024, the latest available, Haryana and Karnataka have led the way in charging infrastructure preparedness.
Niti Aayog, the government’s think tank, said in an August 2025 report that public charging facilities for EVs were inadequate and existing public charging stations were battling low utilization. It recommended that EV charging infrastructure should be scaled up strategically after testing their viability at particular locations.
EV chargers have been set up in fuel retail outlets (petrol pumps) by state-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), BPCL, and HPCL under previous subsidy schemes such as the two iterations of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric (and Hybrid) vehicles – FAME. These schemes ran for a decade from 2015 to 2024, with the PM E-Drive scheme taking over.
However, chargers commissioned under earlier schemes are still being set up, with very few in operation. In February 2025, the heavy industries ministry told the Lok Sabha that under FAME I, about 520 charging stations were sanctioned with an amount of ₹43 crore.
Falling short
Under FAME II, a total of 10,985 chargers were to be installed with an outlay of ₹912.5 crore. Of them, 10,585 were to have been set up by the oil marketing companies, the ministry told the Lok Sabha. The ministry added that as of 31 January 2025, the oil marketing companies had installed 4,523 chargers, of which only 251 – or 5.5% – were operational.
Oil marketing companies need to look at more viable and profitable models of installing EV charging infrastructure, said Abhijeet Sinha, programme director for National Highways for Electric Vehicles in India, which was set up to upgrade highways to e-highways.
“If there is no change in the way they operate, it is likely that the results will be similar to past attempts,” he said.
Experts said ubiquitous EV charging infrastructure is crucial to achieve India’s goal of EVs accounting for 30% of all vehicles sold by 2030.
“In 2024, EVs accounted for just 7.6% of total vehicle sales in India, compared to a global average of 16.5%. To meet the 2030 target of 30% EV penetration, India must increase this share by over 22% in just five years – a steep climb that demands urgent and coordinated action,” said Saket Mehra, partner and auto & EV industry leader at Grant Thornton Bharat.
Mehra said public chargers are essential in this ecosystem, as only about 55% of commuters have access to home chargers. India had 30,971 public EV chargers in February 2026, the heavy industries ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on 4 February. This number, according to Mehra, needs to rise rapidly.
“India will need to install at least 3.9 million public charging stations by 2030 to meet its EV adoption targets. This is a massive scale-up from current levels and highlights the urgency of infrastructure expansion,” he said.