India’s EV boom outpaces charging infrastructure, tests network limits

Mumbai: India’s electric mobility transition is increasingly signified by two divergent strands-while the demand is accelerating rapidly, the supporting charging ecosystem is struggling to keep pace.

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country, comprising two-wheelers, passenger cars and commercial fleets, crossed 2.3 million units in 2025, taking the total number of EVs on Indian roads to nearly 5.9 million. However, with roughly 26,000 public chargers nationwide, the country has just about one charger for every 225 EVs, far behind global benchmarks such as China, where the ratio is closer to one charger for every seven vehicles. The disparity underscores a structural dilemma. Charging infrastructure depends on EV adoption for viability, even as adoption itself hinges on the availability of reliable charging. Industry executives, however, argue that the issue is no longer just about adding chargers but deploying them intelligently.

Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, described the ecosystem as being in a “constant evolution stage”, where rollout is increasingly guided by data and collaboration between automobile manufacturers and charge point operators to identify demand clusters. There are early signs of this shift. Key highway corridors are steadily being equipped with chargers, enabling long-distance EV travel that was once seen as impractical. Data from Tata Motors indicates its EVs have covered 95% of India’s road network, with nearly half the customers undertaking journeys exceeding 500 km, suggesting that range anxiety is gradually easing.

Yet, the challenge is evolving rather than disappearing. Increasingly, the focus is shifting from the presence of chargers to their performance and reliability.

A significant portion of India’s charging network still operates at 25-30 kW, while newer EVs can handle 60 kW or more. This mismatch limits charging speeds, particularly on highways where quick turnaround times are critical. Early infrastructure, often limited to one or two charging points per station, has also led to downtime and queues. The emergence of multi-bay charging hubs is beginning to address this issue, improving uptime and throughput.

For Tata Power, one of India’s largest EV charging network operators, the next phase hinges on utilisation as much as expansion.