Hyundai to install close to 600 fast chargers in India

Gearing up for its ambitious EV plans in India, Hyundai plans to deploy nearly 600 fast chargers nationwide by 2031. The company will make all these chargers accessible to the public, accelerating EV adoption in the country.

hyundai charging station hpc dc india — Image: Hyundai

With the rapidly growing highway infrastructure and the rising popularity of road trips in India, people are increasingly driving cars over long distances. Through internal research, Hyundai learned that customers are sceptical about the practicality of EVs for highway use because of a lack of charging infrastructure. As a result, the company plans to install fast chargers in major cities and along popular highways.

In Tamil Nadu, the southern state where Hyundai builds cars in India, the company will set up 100 charging stations by 2027. It plans to make ten of these outlets operational by the end of this year. It has established only three of these outlets so far and plans to open seven more by the end of this year.

Currently, Hyundai operates charging stations in major cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune. The company has deployed charging stations on key highway routes as well, such as Bengaluru-Pune, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur, Hyderabad-Vijayawada, Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Surat, and Pune-Kolhapur. So far, over 10,000 Hyundai and non-Hyundai customers have used its charging network, completing about 50,000 charging sessions with a total consumption of 7.30 lakh (730,000) units of energy. The South Korean automaker uses chargers with a peak charging output of up to 150 kW.

By the end of this month, Hyundai will have only 50 fast public charging stations in India. The company has developed a limited charging infrastructure in India because it does not sell any high-volume EVs in the country. To date, it has sold just over 4,061 EVs, consisting of the pre-facelift first-generation Kona Electric and the pre-facelift Ioniq 5.

In the coming years, Hyundai plans to gradually build a robust line-up of locally manufactured electric cars, starting with a heavily modified version of its best-selling model and India’s most popular SUV – the Creta. The company plans to unveil the Creta EV at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo in January 2025. In the second half of 2026, it will launch a Citroen e-C3 rivalling A-segment electric crossover codenamed ‘HE1i.’ Later, the South Korean automaker could introduce a pure electric variant of the next-gen Venue small SUV and the next-gen long-wheelbase i10.

Info per e-mail; business-standard.com