45% of homes will need electrical upgrades to charge EVs: Study
NEW DELHI: Amid the push for EVs and Delhi govt’s policy of stopping registration of CNG- and petrol-fuelled threewheelers from Jan 2027 and two-wheelers from April 2028, a study released Tuesday has found nearly 45% of Indian homes need electrical upgrades to safely charge EVs. The study, carried out by 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, covering independent homes, apartment complexes, informal settlements and shared rental housing. Earlier, independent studies by electric two-wheeler manufacturers had shown that most such vehicles run a maximum of around 60km a day and a single full battery charge is sufficient for this. The study pointed out that despite rapid growth in EV adoption in India, access to safe and reliable residential charging remains constrained by “unseen” barriers such as legacy electrical infrastructure, housing design, governance arrangements and socio-economic realities. “While the transition to electric mobility is frequently framed around vehicle uptake and public charging expansion, the home as a primary charging site presents a more complex and uneven landscape,” the study observed. Since existing residential electrical infrastructure was not designed to support EV charging, the addition of multiple chargers can overload local circuits, leading to frequent tripping, voltage fluctuations, overheating of wires, transformer failures and power outages. Lack of dedicated parking, absence of clear guidelines for retrofitting older 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 fraction of EV users have dedicated parking spaces in Delhi. Most park their vehicles either in common parking areas of apartment complexes or on public streets, where providing a dedicated EV charging connection is a complex problem,” said a discom official. The study recommended a unified framework embedding multiple standards and regulations, building provisions and EV charging guidelines to create a common implementation pathway for residential charging. Experts said EV adoption continues to face 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 national level told TOI that the typical life of an EV battery is around 7-8 years or 1.2-1.3 lakh km, meaning every EV is likely to need at least one battery replacement during its 15-year registration period.
