India’s largest fuel retailer and refiner, Indian Oil Corp, has unveiled plans to set up 10,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its outlets across the country over three years.
“EVs are now a reality and Indian Oil is geared up to tide over challenges and leverage opportunities in this area. Our bouquet of services will now include alternative energy offerings, including EV charging, at our fuel stations,” Indian Oil chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya said.
Indian Oil has tied up with Tata Power, Power Grid Corp., NTPC, Fortum, Hyundai, Tech Mahindra, BHEL and Ola to set up EV chargers at its outlets, the company said.
The oil marketing firm, meanwhile, is also drawing up a strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions to help India meet its net zero carbon target by 2027, Vaidya added.
Net Zero Emissions
The announcement comes two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the target for India to reach net zero, saying that by 2030 the share of renewables in India’s energy mix would rise to 50% from 38% and projected emissions would be cut by a billion tonnes.
Indian Oil controls about a third of the country’s 5 million barrels per day (bpd) refining capacity.
“At all our refineries we are taking steps to make them net zero from the production point of view. We will be making an announcement shortly,” Vaidya said at a press conference.
However plans to reduce emissions linked to the use of refined products such as gasoline sold at a fuel stations or jet fuel sold to airlines were still a long way off, he said.
Green Hydrogen
The state-run refiner has announced it would use clean electricity from the grid to fuel its capacity expansion. It also plans to use green hydrogen at its Mathura and Panipat refineries in northern India.
India’s national hydrogen mission mandates that refiners and fertiliser producers should meet half of their hydrogen needs through green hydrogen by 2030.
Vaidya said India’s net zero aim would not impact his firm’s refining expansion plans as India’s per-capita energy consumption is a third of global average, leaving scope for the use of all kinds of energy including fossil fuels.
Besides Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corp last month announced plans to set up EV charging stations at about 7,000 petrol pumps in the next few years.
In September, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, which currently has 84 EV charging stations, announced plans to commission 5,000 charging stations in the next three years.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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