The government of India has now started the facility of accepting payments for charging electric vehicles (EVs) through digital wallets. The step was taken in response to the recommendations made by the Committee for Standardisation of the Protocol for Charging Infrastructure earlier this year.

The following three suggestions were recommended by the committee in the direction of fulfilling the government’s target of electrification of all automobiles in the country by 2030.

• Adopting uniform standards for EV charging stations - To enable charging of various EVs from different manufacturers at any station
• Digital payments - To ease the payment process
• Setting up massive charging infrastructure - To give EV buyers peace of mind as they don’t have to worry about charging on longer journeys or in emergency situations

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Only the second recommendation has been accepted by the government so far, while the other two are still awaiting confirmation.

In the recommendation report submitted by the committee on digital payments, it was said that the customer should have multiple options for making payments when charging their electric vehicles on these public/private outlets. This includes the facility of debiting the money from user’s account based on their VIN (Vehicle Identification Number).

There was also the recommendation for enabling payments through mobile apps, including UPI apps such as BHIM or Bharat QR code and other suitable options.

A recently study held by the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) reveals the following statistics about the purchases of Electric Vehicles across the country in the fiscal year 2016-17. The total sale count of EVs in the last fiscal was close to 25,000 units.

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In its efforts to make India a pollution-free country, the government had announced that it intends to make the Indian automobile industry all-electric by 2030. Even though we are still very far from the goal of having 6.7 million electric (or hybrid) vehicles on the country roads by 2020, the establishment of EV charging stations in major cities can be considered a big step in that direction. And now, the government has also approved the facility of online payments for these services, which is further going to instil a new level of confidence among the sellers as well as the buyers.

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