India is buying more EVs, but can charging infra keep pace with demand?

India's EV sales are rising rapidly, but inconsistent charging access, downtime and residential infrastructure gaps continue to test consumer confidence and adoption

When Dilip Yadav bought an electric vehicle a year and a half ago, charging was relatively seamless because his housing society in Gurugram had common charging stations. But after shifting homes to a different residential complex in the same area, he encountered a new reality.

 

“Residents were not allowed to use their personal EV chargers in the basement and there were no public charging pods as well,” Yadav said.

 

With no residential charging option, Yadav initially depended on limited chargers at his workplace, where long wait times disrupted his routine. He eventually shifted to mobile EV charging vans for daily convenience.

   

Yadav's experience reflects a broader reality challenging India’s EV transition: while consumers are increasingly willing to buy electric vehicles, charging access remains inconsistent, fragmented and often unreliable.

 

Why is charging confidence still fragile despite rising EV sales?

 

India’s EV market continued to expand strongly in April 2026. According to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) data, electric passenger vehicle sales rose 75.1 per cent year-on-year to 23,506 units in April, while electric two-wheeler sales increased 60.7 per cent to nearly 149,000 units. Electric three-wheelers also registered modest growth of 3.3 per cent year-on-year, reaching 64,549 units.

 

The sales momentum has shifted attention from vehicle demand to the dependability of India’s charging network. Navneet Daga, co-founder and CEO of EV charging solutions firm Zenergize, told Business Standard the real challenge lies not only in deployment but also in ensuring consistent uptime, predictable performance and resilience under India’s demanding conditions: high temperatures, voltage fluctuations and heavy usage cycles.

 

He added that for EVs to transition from early adoption to mainstream use, charging infrastructure must become as dependable as fuel stations.

 

A 2024 briefing note by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) similarly identified outdated technology, weak maintenance incentives and poor operational consistency at public charging stations as roadblocks to faster vehicle electrification in India.

 

Rajat Mahajan, partner and automotive sector leader at Deloitte India, told Business Standard that Deloitte’s 2026 Global Automotive Consumer Survey for India showed that 43 per cent of respondents cited a lack of public charging infrastructure as a concern, while 41 per cent cited charging time and 31 per cent cited a lack of residential charging access.

 

Mahajan said India’s current charger-to-EV ratio stands at roughly 1:235, far behind global benchmarks of 1:6 to 1:20. “To reach the NITI Aayog target of 30 per cent EV penetration, we require around 1.32 million chargers, up from the current 30,000 chargers,” Mahajan said.

 

Is India’s charging network expanding fast enough?

 

India’s public charging network expanded rapidly from around 5,000 stations in 2022 to over 29,000 by 2025, according to Exicom’s India DC Fast Charging Reliability Report 2026. But expansion alone has not solved usability concerns.

 

The report found that nearly half of public chargers -- around 12,100 out of 25,000 -- were non-functional at some point in February 2024, while approximately 25 per cent faced frequent downtime due to technical issues, grid instability or delayed maintenance.

 

Charging speed remains another gap. Average charging times in India range between 1.5 and 2 hours, far slower than global fast-charging standards of 30 minutes to one hour.

 

Consumers also face operational challenges, often depending on multiple mobile applications to locate functional chargers, while payment systems remain fragmented. The report noted that users typically navigate 17 to 20 different apps to find working charging points. It also said that 73 per cent of non-EV users in India believe ultra-fast charging infrastructure remains inadequate.

 

Anand Kabra, chairman and managing director of EV battery manufacturer Geon (Green Energy On), said reliability remains the defining issue.

 

“When 70 per cent of EV users report encountering a faulty charger, we are not just looking at a technical glitch; we’re looking at a trust deficit,” he told Business Standard.

 

Why are accessibility gaps creating charging anxiety?

 

For many users, the nearest listed charger may not actually be usable. Public chargers are often located inside malls, office parks, gated premises or commercial complexes with restricted operating hours. This limits accessibility for users travelling late at night, on highways or during emergencies.

 

Exicom’s report found that 88 per cent of EV owners identified locating an accessible, safe and functioning charging station as a major source of anxiety.  Sahil Jindal, co-founder of Trevel and managing director of the Jindal Group, told Business Standard: "The focus needs to shift away from just building charging stations and towards holding operators responsible for providing reliable services." 

 

Why do apartment residents face the biggest EV charging barriers?

 

Residential charging remains the preferred option for most EV users globally, but in India's urban centres, access is often blocked by policy uncertainty and housing-society concerns.

 

Shagun Vishwanath, associate at think tank Nation First Policy Research & Change Foundation, told Business Standard that residential charging could account for 70-80 per cent of EV charging where feasible, making apartment complexes central to India’s EV transition.

 

But many resident welfare associations (RWAs) remain hesitant due to safety concerns.

 

Questions around basement ventilation, transformer capacity, uncertified chargers, emergency liability and fire compliance have created widespread uncertainty. This is increasingly pushing EV infrastructure into the domain of building regulation rather than just transport policy.

 

Can urban planning solve India’s EV charging problem?

 

Some states are now beginning to address these concerns through building-code changes.

 

Haryana’s Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) has proposed amendments to the Haryana Building Code, 2017, to allow EV charging stations across residential and commercial projects, including basement and stilt parking areas, subject to fire safety compliance.

 

The draft also seeks EV-ready electrical infrastructure in new and renovated developments.

 

Manasvi Sharma, chief executive officer of Everta, which provides EV charging solutions, told Business Standard that Haryana’s move represents an important policy shift by embedding EV charging into mainstream urban planning.  Md Saddam Hussain, principal research associate, and Anmol Jain, senior research associate, at Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), similarly noted that EV infrastructure must now be integrated across the full building lifecycle, from planning approvals to occupancy certification.

 

Why does charging infrastructure matter for India’s EV ambitions?

 

For buyers such as Dilip Yadav, the question is no longer only whether an EV can cover the distance, but whether charging will be available when and where it is needed.

 

India is buying more EVs. But unless charging becomes as reliable and accessible as conventional fuel infrastructure, the country’s electric mobility ambitions could face a significant structural bottleneck.