EV Owner: India Is NOT Ready For EVs, Have Written To Nitin Gadkari
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption has increased drastically in the past few years. Over the years, have seen the charging infrastructure grow and life get easier for EV owners. A recent Facebook post by an EV owner has sparked a fresh round of discussions around EV adoption and ownership experience. It claims that India isn’t ready for electric cars yet. Ravi Bhatia, the person who posted this, owns a Tata Nexon.EV and has been having a rough ownership experience so far. It isn’t, however, the car’s fault. The gaps in charging infrastructure and restrictions caused by his housing society in installing a home charger are ruining the experience for this owner. He now regrets buying the EV and says that he has even written to Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and other officials about it.
Image: Screenshot of FB post
Ravi Bhatia shared his miserable experience in EV Owners Group India, a Facebook community for EV owners and enthusiasts. He openly stated that EVs are a mistake in India’s current conditions, and others should avoid buying one. This owner’s anger is rooted in real-world ownership hurdles he has been facing with the Nexon EV. He says that the public charging infrastructure is unreliable and poorly distributed, atleast in his city. Frustrated, he even wrote to the Haryana Chief Minister, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and even Tata Motors, seeking a resolution.
His post doesn’t explain the issue in depth. From what we understand, his housing society isn’t permitting the installation of a ‘private charger’, which we think is the AC fast charger that can be bought with the EV. He says that he paid Rs 50,000 for this unit and hasn’t been able to install or use it, due to friction with the housing society. This leaves him with no dependable home charging solution.
Image used for representation only
Owning an EV without a proper home charging setup can be a bigger pain than you expect. The public charging infrastructure needs work in most places and often costs more than home charging. Bhatia says that neither the government nor private companies are fully prepared to support EV buyers on the ground.
Circling back, housing societies, in many cases, cite fire safety or electrical load concerns as reasons to deny permission for private charger installation. This creates major confusion and chaos for new and first-time EV owners.
Image used for representation only
The government has been implementing measures to resolve this crisis. Under the amended Model Building Bye-Laws (MBBL), all new residential and commercial buildings must reserve 20% of their parking capacity for EV charging. In some states (like Maharashtra for example), to get Occupancy Certificate, a new housing society needs to install the required EV charging infrastructure.
Residents in housing societies also have legal right to install private chargers in their allotted parking slots. Housing societies cannot arbitrarily block such installations, as long as safety norms are met. The society doesn’t need a separate electricity license to offer power to EV owning residents.
Image used for representation only
There is truth to the infrastructure concern. While India has rapidly increased the number of public charging stations in recent years, availability remains inconsistent. Chargers are concentrated in major cities and along highways. Even where chargers exist, owners often complain about downtime, compatibility issues or other electrical issues.
All these mean painful ownership and a sheer absense of dependability. These are mostly felt only after ownership begins. Bringing even more pain is the fact that compared to traditional refuelling, EVs take longer to charge, even on fast chargers. Smartphone application-related uncertainties are major concerns as well.
There are definitely practical barriers and slight compromises in EV ownership. These are often specific to individual use-cases and cannot be generalised. The simple answer to this question is ‘Buy an EV if you have access to a home charger, or can facilitate one. Relying completely on public chargers is very unrealistic and almost impossible. Choose EV over ICE vehicles if you know (and are patient enough) to plan your journeys well.’