EV charging outlets up

28/10/2019

 
PUNE: Mumbai-based start-up Magenta Power is setting up charging stations for electric vehicles across the Mumbai-Pune expressway and plans to set up a similar chain across the Pune-Bangalore and Bangalore-Mysore highways by March.

Magenta Power works on providing clean energy solutions and has three business verticals – clean energy generation through roof-top solar solutions, developing EV charging solutions and energy informatics. Magenta is yet to secure funding - a bootstrap company - and has tied up with HPCL.

Magenta Power managing director Maxson Lewis said, “There is a range anxiety among EV owners today. The maximum range that EVs offer today is 120 km. So we have built a number of charging stations on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, so that EV drivers do not run out of charge. We identified locations and set up charging stations, one every 60 km. We have four charging stations with chargers DC-001 and AC-001.”

The proposed charging chains on the Pune-Bangalore and Bangalore-Mysore highways will have the European standard chargers Combined Charging Systems 2 (CCS2), said Lewis. “Today we are getting one vehicle per day at the charging stations on the EV corridor, whereas we had set up the stations under the assumption of one car per week.”

The company has also set up the first solar based EV charging station in Navi Mumbai. “EVs are not a solution to pollution. It is just transferring the problem from fuel to chimneys. The solution to pollution lies in solar power or renewable energy,” said Lewis.

Magenta Power has installed the first solar based EV charging station in a housing complex in Navi Mumbai. The company has installed a 16W solar plant on the rooftop that provides renewable power to the housing and also feeds the three EV charging stations installed there. “This is the first in India. Nowhere else is there a solar powered EV charging station,” claimed Lewis.

The company has also launched a ChargeGrid Series that turns any location into a charging station. It is a fully integrated, unmanned, convenient, payment enabled open network of smart charging solutions. The “ChargeGrid PRO” series is best suited for community charging in offices, malls and residential societies.

The ChargeGrid PRO comes online connected with the mobile app and a command centre. Through the app EV owners can locate charging stations on an aerial map, book charging slots, get updates on charging, recommendations on time-of-day use and paying charges online. The pricing of the ChargeGrid series starts from a range of Rs 11,000 to Rs 50,000.