OMCs eye a big slice of EV infra pie

Officials from these companies said while the consensus was that disruption from the EV segment would at least be a decade away, the pandemic has changed the business environment, forcing them to accelerate plans in the EV charging segment.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL), the largest refiner and marketer, has installed 257 EV charging stations at its retail outlets and is planning another 1,800 stations this fiscal. IOCL, which has tied up with Israel’s Phinergy, is working on an aluminium air battery technology.

“If that technology concept is proven, we have an understanding of proving that with two vehicle manufacturers. And if that is successful, then we have already registered a company in India for manufacturing the aluminium air battery… if that happens, we will perhaps be the leader in the technology in this area,” Sandeep Kumar Gupta, director – finance, said in a post-earnings call on 2 August.

Last week, Reliance BP Mobility Ltd (RBML), a joint venture between Reliance Industries and BP Plc, partnered with food delivery platform Swiggy to deploy EVs in its fleet on a pilot basis.

The partnership is aimed at promoting the adoption of battery-operated EVs, including deployment of electric two-wheelers, that will be supported by a network of battery swap stations and Swiggy’s network of delivery partners. RBML owns 1,400 fuel outlets and plans to grow it to 5,000.

RBML aims to build thousands of battery swap stations over five years at its retail outlets as well as residential and commercial complexes, malls, hotels and business parks.

According to Morgan Stanley Research, India reached 1% two-wheeler EV penetration in July, which it expects to grow to 10% by 2025.

“RIL’s peers like IOCL already have 28 battery swapping stations and are ahead in building their B2C electrification capabilities, but the tie-up with Swiggy gives RIL potentially higher miles travelled consumers, with Swiggy riders clocking 80-100km daily,” said Morgan Stanley in a report.

Over the past few months, state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has tied up with three entities—Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL), Tata Power and Magenta EV Systems—for facilitating setting up of charging infrastructure at its retail outlets.

The OMCs, however, estimate that petrol and diesel will see around 5-6% growth in the foreseeable future and the transition to EVs would only be gradual and will not pose any threat to fossil fuel sales.