Chargegrid: India’s 1st Street Lamp Mounted EV Charger
In a bid to accelerate EV adoption in India, ONGC owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (HPCL) has launched an EV charger at its retail outlets. The EV Chargers branded as “ChargeGrid Flare” have been launched in partnership with Magenta EV Solutions Company.
HPCL and Magenta has inaugurated the ChargeGrid Flare EV Charger at HPCL Bandra Kurla Complex outlet in Mumbai and Nitimarg T&E outlet in Delhi.
What is ChargeGrid Flare EV Charger ?
The ChargeGrid Flare is an EV Charging Solution developed by Magenta EV Solutions, a startup, seed funded by HPCL in 2018 and selected by Shell for the E4 innovation hub in 2019.
The ChargeGrid Flare is inclusive of a power-saving efficient LED lamp, robust street light pole and electric vehicle supply equipment made for Indian climatic conditions enabling online and remote monitoring of the chargers. It has an automated payment gateway through the ChargeGrid App, thereby eliminating the need of having a station marshal to monitor, maintain & operate the chargers at the location.
The EV Charger has been specifically designed to be installed in public access environments such as community car parking lots, smart cities, airports to offer an ideal on-street electric vehicle charging solution for users on the fly.
The new class of EV charging points is claimed to be the first in India to incorporate within energy-efficient streetlamp columns, which will encourage EV adoption for flexible and low-cost charging solutions.
Maxson Lewis, MD of Magenta EV said, “we are happy to announce the installation of our first ChargeGrid Flare product at HPCL fuel stations at Mumbai and Delhi. The product was supposed to roll out in April 2020, along with multiple pilot projects to be commencing immediately post the launch. However, due to the Covid-19 impact, we decided to delay the installations and now we are happy that 2021 starts off on a high note with this first installation now at the HPCL centres.
With this launch, HPCL’s tally of EV charging facilities goes up to 50. The oil marketing company had set up its first EV charging station in Vadodara in February 2020.
Rajnish Mehta, Executive Director – HPCL said, “we are proud of our startup Magenta Power to design this unique charger solution tailor-made for Indian cities. As India moves towards the adoption of sustainable practices, we will continue to provide support to Magenta to develop the best sustainable energy solutions and look forward to quickly add more cities to this exciting transformation.”
Magenta aims at installing more than 1000 ChargeGrid Flare pan India by the end of 2021.
Featured Image – courtesy Magenta EV Solutions.
