Is Chandigarh EV Ready?

The city of Chandigarh is making an effort to be classified as a ‘smart city’ and the presence of Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in public parking areas is a step in the right direction. With the growing demand for the use of EV’s to curb pollution and wean away from fossil fuels, the central government is leading the push and state governments are slowly accepting the need.

However, are we even investing in creating the right infrastructure? The current charging stations have been designed to cater to 16A slow charging using IEC-60309 connector presently offered in older versions of Mahindra and Tata vehicles.

These charging connectors are an outdated technology because they limit the capability of how the charging equipment interacts with the vehicle and do not have proximity detection, current coding and locking mechanism which are essential to ensure user safety and the safety of the vehicle.

The world has moved to more intelligent connectors like the IEC-62196-2 and it is a given that almost all new vehicles that will come into the country will be equipped with these, then why are we investing in obsolete technologies.

The apprehension that existing vehicles may not be able to use these devices is also unfounded as converters are available in the market which can allow your existing vehicle to plug in the new generation chargers.

Additionally, a concern with the chargers installed all over the city is that they do not have a smart automated payment solution, implying that there will always be a need for an operator to manage operations, which shall in turn increase the cost. Considering the low density of EV’s, it will strain the finances of the charging machine operator, eventually leading to the abandonment and neglect to these devices.

It is time that we start thinking about our future requirements instead of investing time and money on our current needs.