HPCL goes all out to help India’s green push

State-run firm Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has been sewing up partnerships for setting up EV charging infrastructure across its 18,000 retail outlets in the country in a bid to help India’s push for green mobility. Recently, it signed a pact with another state-run firm Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) for setting up charging infrastructure in some of its fuel retail outlets.

HPCL has also inked an agreement with Tata Power to set up electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its outlets in cities and highways. Tata Power has around 500 public chargers in over 100 cities. Also, Shuchi Anant Virya—a joint venture between Lithium Urban Technologies and Fourth Partner Energy—recently announced its partnership with HPCL to set up an EV charging network in India. The JV currently owns and operates EV charging hubs in Gurugram and Pune.

This renewed push for EV comes in the backdrop of the government modifying the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (Fame) scheme by increasing the incentive for electric two-wheelers to ₹15,000/KWh and allotted the demand aggregation of electric three-wheeler and electric bus component to CESL’s parent firm— Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). The Centre also extended the Fame scheme, created to curb vehicular emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, by two years till 31 March 2024.

“Across 10 years, the agreement entails CESL and HPCL to jointly undertake setting up of EV charging points in many cities including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune,” CESL said in a statement on 30 July.

EV prices are also expected to be on par with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles before 2025. Consequently, Indian energy majors are pivoting towards the country’s green economy.

“CESL and HPCL are also identifying major highways across India where adequate charging infrastructure can be installed,” the statement added.

CESL is also working on a ‘grand challenge’ among nine major metros for allocating electric buses as reported by Mint earlier. These cities are Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat, and Pune where these buses will offered on an operating expenses (opex) model i.e. private operators will be chosen on the basis of the lowest per kilometer charge per bus quoted by them.