New Delhi: Amid the push for EVs and the Delhi government’s policy to stop registration of CNG and petrol-fuelled three-wheelers from January 2027 and two-wheelers from April 2028, a study released on Tuesday has found that about 45% of Indian households need electrical upgrades to safely charge EVs. The study, conducted by the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) and Kazam, is based on a dataset of over 80,000 residential EV charger installations across tier-I, tier-II and tier-III cities, including independent houses, apartment complexes, informal settlements and shared rental housing. Earlier, independent studies conducted by electric two-wheeler manufacturers had shown that most such vehicles travel a maximum of about 60 km in a day and a single full battery charge is sufficient. The study notes that despite rapid growth in EV adoption in India, access to safe and reliable residential charging is hindered by “unseen” barriers such as legacy electrical infrastructure, housing design, governance arrangements and socio-economic realities. “While changes to electric mobility often occur around vehicle use and public charging expansion, the home as the primary charging site presents a more complex and uneven landscape,” the study observed. Since the existing residential electrical infrastructure was not designed to support EV charging, adding multiple chargers can overload local circuits, leading to frequent tripping, voltage fluctuations, overheating of wires, transformer failure, and power outages. Lack of dedicated parking, lack of clear guidelines for renovating old buildings, concerns about fire hazards, ambiguity over liability in the event of technical failures and prohibitively high upfront costs of upgrading charging infrastructure have emerged as major barriers to residential charging. “Only a few EV users in Delhi have dedicated parking spaces. Most park their vehicles either in the common parking areas of apartment complexes or on public roads, where providing dedicated EV charging connections is a complex problem,” said a discom official. The study recommended an integrated framework encompassing multiple standards and regulations, building provisions and EV charging guidelines to create a common implementation pathway for residential charging. Experts said EV adoption faces challenges such as inadequate public charging infrastructure, limited access to charging facilities and concerns over claims made by manufacturers regarding battery range and life. People involved in policymaking at the national level told TOI that the typical life of an EV battery is around 7-8 years or 1.2-1.3 lakh km, which means every EV is likely to require at least one battery replacement during the 15-year registration period.
