BackGet into mission mode on the ease of charging
Early adopters of EVs living in urban apartment blocks have run into RWA resistance over charging amenities. For mass-market EV adoption, such knots need to be untangled swiftly
PremiumIf you live in an urban apartment complex and own an electric vehicle, or plan to buy an EV, your biggest worry of ownership isn’t range anxiety. Rather, it is probably your resident welfare association (RWA). Across major Indian cities, EV owners are sparring with housing complex associations that refuse to let them install chargers on the premises, citing building bylaws, parking lots with no plans for it and lack of space, among other pretexts. How will electricity drawn from plug-points in common areas be paid for? And what if a vehicle bursts into flames? Since power metering exist and fires are only a small risk, these objections are weak. Sadly, so are EV users as a lobby group. As EVs form hardly 1% of India’s new car sales and no more than 5% of the two-wheeler offtake, EV users remain too few. While this may explain why so many RWAs are deaf to their demands, it is scandalous in the context of our need for cleaner mobility.
The country’s charging infrastructure is still dismal. According to a BNP Paribas report, China has been adding as many charging stations every week as our entire nationwide count of these. Yes, chargers have come up along Indian highways, but these do little to solve the problem for the vast majority of EV owners, who drive these vehicles within the city and must charge their batteries at home. A Twitter poll of EV owners held by a Mint writer asking if they faced RWA resistance in getting nods for charger installation got 57% affirmative responses from a self-selected sample of 324. Multiple instances have come to light of EV users resorting to cable extensions from their high-rise flats to ground-level parking slots. This is a nuisance for everyone, but left to fend for themselves, many have either had to use long cords or shift residence. In some cases, exasperated EV owners have been driven to breach thickets of red tape at electricity boards and municipal bodies, even approach courts, to set up chargers where they park overnight.
Early adopters of EVs deserve to be commended for charting a course that others must follow in the global effort to choke carbon emissions that trap heat and threaten the planet. But anecdotal evidence suggests that the hoops that EV owners must leap through to recharge their batteries has disheartened others who might have sought electric options. It is also evident that residents of housing societies whose RWAs have installed chargers are much better disposed to the prospect of going electric. All this should push RWAs out of their inertia on charging amenities. Since it could take costly transformer upgrades and rewiring of circuitry, fixed costs may prove steep, but RWAs may find it worthwhile to work with charging set-up providers. Inviting private operators to offer services on the premises, however, could keep recharge costs high (on low volumes) and work against the appeal of EVs. The math can be tricky. Could a government effort untangle these knots? It’s a challenge big enough for a policy response. Most urban dwellers who use their own vehicles do not park beside a usable plug point, which is a luxury of bungalow living. This could justify some funds from outlays on urban development on a ‘go electric’ package for apartment blocks. As EV makers have a keen interest in the ease of charging, they could be co-opted too. Perhaps private-public partnerships can take up this task at scale. All in all, for EVs to sell in volumes that can make a real difference, chargers must be placed within the routine reach of would-be users.
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