Electric vehicle manufacturer Ather Energy has partnered with state-owned Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) to set up charging stations in all of the latter’s 21,000 fuel stations across the country, as per a press statement.
Ather Energy will target metro cities and deploy its charging infrastructure along intercity routes that see high usage, the company said. It has already installed four such fast chargers in Delhi-NCR and aims to install over a 100 chargers at BPCL pumps by the end of the year.
The company already has 1,400 charging stations in 100 cities, making it one of the largest charging networks in the country.
Ather two-wheeler owners will be able to locate these charging stations through Ather’s mobile app which offers real time availability of chargers, making the process more streamlined, it said.
“This collaboration will enable us to leverage BPCL's extensive fuel station network, bringing our fast-charging grid closer to our customers across the country,” Ather Energy’s chief business officer Ravneet Phokela said.
The under penetration of charging points in India has remained a hindrance to widespread adoption of electric mobility and this collaboration is part of a larger initiative oil and gas companies are undertaking to serve the infrastructure-intensive EV charging space.
BPCL through this initiative is targeting the two wheeler-segment, which has seen the highest uptake in the EV market, and sees this as a “strategic step towards ushering in an era of best-in-class EV charging solutions” and the electrification of petrol pumps.