VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is in the process of setting up three charging stations for electric vehicles in the city.
VMC estimates that around 5,000 electric vehicles will hit city roads in the next one year and decided to arrange battery charging and swap stations at multiple locations in the city. “Electric vehicles are the future. We are promoting them in a big way. Many of our officials have been using EVs for years. We have finalised three charging stations with an estimated cost of Rs. 1.2 crore,” Prasanna Venkatesh, commissioner, VMC, said.
Electric vehicles entered the Indian market 10 years ago but failed to woo consumers mainly because of lack of charging stations and huge cost.
The situation has changed in the last two years with a spike in fuel prices. The price of petrol was Rs. 104.56 in the city on Thursday and trade circles predicted that price will increase by another 10 percent in the coming months. Many small-to-medium companies have entered the EV market with a variety of two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws. Altogether 280 electric auto rickshaws were sold in the city since August 2020 and 430 electric two-wheelers.
“The cost of fuel is increasing every day and our salary has remained same for years. Earlier we ignored electric bikes as they got less range and poor pick-up. But the range has increased to 120 km per charge with lithium batteries and many electric two-wheelers are coming with a top speed of 80 kmph. So, I have shifted to EV,” said KSN Prasad, a marketing employee from the city.
