EV Dreams, Dead Battery?

DECODE THE NEWS

India's EV Revolution Is Running Out Of Charge 

What?

India currently faces a troubling mismatch with public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs). With a ratio of just one public charger available for every 135 electric vehicles on the road, we are significantly behind the global ratio of having one charger for every six to 20 electric vehicles.

According to the government data shared in Parliament by the Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Steel (MHI), Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, India currently has just 25,202 public chargers — a fraction of the required infrastructure to support future demand.

Why Is This Important?

The country has set an ambitious goal of having 30% of new private vehicle registrations as electric vehicles by 2030, which adds up to a staggering 80 million EVs. But unless charging station additions speed up significantly, the country may miss this mark. Reports and studies indicate that India must swiftly ramp up to approximately 3.9 million public and semi-public charging stations by 2030 to sustain the targeted growth, maintaining at least one station per 20 vehicles.  

Multiple OEMs, EV manufacturers, and charging infrastructure startups, including Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Ola Electric, MG Motor, Ather Energy and others, have made several ambitious claims in their press releases and media interviews regarding the number of charging stations installed across India. Analysing publicly available data from 13 prominent companies, TheCore found these firms collectively claim to have already installed around 96,916 charging stations nationwide. 

So What Does This Mean?

But this 96,916 figure is starkly at odds with data officially released by the MHI recently. This glaring discrepancy raises critical questions: Which figure truly reflects the reality on the ground — the industry's claims or the government's official numbers? This mismatch is far from trivial as it potentially affects India's ambitious EV adoption goals.

Both two-wheeler (2W) and four-wheeler (4W) EV owners actively seek ways to charge vehicles at home, opting for private chargers at their apartments, office parking lots or even installing dedicated charging setups at home to avoid the hassle of using unreliable public stations. This again reduces the demand for public chargers, reinforcing a cycle where low utilisation discourages further investment in infrastructure.?

$20 million

That’s how much Indians lost in cyber fraud cases in the fiscal year 2024, according to a report published by Reuters, which quoted from data that the finance ministry submitted to the parliament earlier this week. The $20 million figure is more than double of what Indians lost in 2023, while the number of fraud cases quadrupled, from 6,699 to 29,082. PM Modi talked of the prevalence of digital scams in his monthly radio address last October, urging Indians to protect their national security. Increasing incidents of cybercrime have pushed the country’s authorities to act as well: the telecom regulator ordered blacklisting spam callers and the central bank proposed allowing banks to freeze accounts they suspected.

—🛰️ Sealed deal. SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s aerospace company, will now offer its satellite internet services in India in partnership with Bharti Airtel. This is the company's first formal partnership in India. The news about SpaceX comes close on the heels of news that Musk’s auto company, Tesla, was setting up shop in Mumbai and Delhi. But this is, of course, contingent on regulatory approvals from authorities.  Gopal Vittal, managing director and vice chairman of Bharti Airtel, called this a “significant milestone” in the telecom giant’s journey. 

—✈️ Buckle up! The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025, introduced by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, aims to modernise India’s immigration laws by replacing colonial-era acts. The bill strengthens national security, mandates foreigner registration and imposes strict penalties for violations. Illegal entry could lead to five years in jail, while forged documents may result in seven years. Overstaying and visa breaches attract fines. Transport carriers face penalties for undocumented passengers. Immigration officers gain arrest powers, and the government can restrict foreign movement and exits.

—🧑‍✈️ Where are the pilots? India’s pilot shortage just became more pressing. Weeks after stating India needs 20,000 pilots, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu has raised the figure to 30,000 for the next 15-20 years. With Indian airlines ordering over 1,700 aircraft, the demand is soaring. The ministry is evaluating 38 Flying Training Organisations for ratings. Currently, India has 6,000-7,000 pilots, but a shortage persists as many move to Gulf countries because of several perks, including better pay and lifestyle.

—💰 Lending Shifts! Indian non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are set to tweak their funding strategies after the Reserve Bank of India relaxed lending norms for banks, The Economic Times reported. The move, which trims risk weight requirements on consumer microfinance loans, could push banks to lend more to NBFCs, reducing their reliance on short-term commercial papers. High-rated NBFCs are likely to benefit first, with banks gradually extending funding to lower-rated firms. However, experts say it could take 6-9 months before banks ramp up lending to pre-restriction levels.

India is gasping for air, quite literally! The country was ranked as the fifth most polluted nation in 2024, according to a report by air quality monitoring firm IQAir. Though this is a two-step slip from its third-place spot last year, it isn’t much to be happy about. 

Although the county saw a 7% drop in PM2.5 levels, it did very little to change the grim reality: six of the world’s ten most polluted cities are still in India. In Delhi, annual PM2.5 concentrations stood at 91.6 µg/m³, nearly 10 times the World Health Organisation’s safe limit.

Vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, and the persistent hazard of stubble burning continue to choke the air, slashing life expectancy by an estimated 5.2 years, the report added. Government action remains inconsistent—Delhi’s fuel ban for 15-year-old vehicles kicks in next month, while courts scold officials for failing to enforce emergency pollution measures.

And here’s the kicker: global road transport emissions could double by 2050. So unless India gets serious about clean energy and public transport, we’ll be stuck in a cycle of seasonal suffocation — with no breath of fresh air in sight.

On Episode 529 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Sumit Jain, Deputy CIO at ASK Investment Managers Private Limited as well as Karan Taurani, Senior Vice President - Research Analyst (Media, Consumer Discretionary & Internet) at Elara Capital.

1. Can The Sensex Hit 105,000 by December 2025

2. Going back to the 101 of investing and stock picking.

3. Oil prices are holding around $70

4. Musk partners Airtel to bring internet service even as Tesla car sales crash globally.

5. What does Reliance Retail’s downsizing mean for the industry?

👥 THE TEAM

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas