India's Rs 2,000 Cr EV-Charger Subsidy Has No Working Public Charger, No Room For Startups

 By Dev Chandrasekhar

PM E-DRIVE is the central government's main subsidy scheme for electric vehicles. The name is short for PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement. It began on October 1, 2024, with Rs 2,000 crore set aside for public chargers.

In August, almost a year after those rules, the government told Parliament that not one charger had been installed. 

A progress note from the government's press office on October 1 this year, the scheme's second anniversary, said Rs 851 crore had been approved for 8,147 chargers. These were to be set up by the three state-run fuel companies and ten state governments. 

It did not say how many of them work.

The scheme has since been extended to March 31, 2028. The next 17 months will decide what it builds, and for whom.

The companies with the most at stake are the small ones the scheme leaves out. They need help with the cost more than anyone, and get almost none of it.

Many work like a franchise. A housing society, shop or highway restaurant pays for a charger on its premises; the company installs and runs it for a share of the takings. Such companies raise money a few crore rupees at a time, then wait months for drivers to find each new site.

This matters beyond the charging trade, because a shortage of public chargers is still a leading reason Indians hesitate to buy electric cars. 

In the consulting firm Deloitte's 2026 survey of Indian consumers, 43% named it as a concern. 

Investors that are being pitched charging startups, and housing societies deciding whether to host a charger, need to know whom the subsidy helps and whom it hurts. 

The answer starts with who owns the land.

Private Sites Get The Least

The government told Parliament in July that India had 52,718 public charging stations, according to a summary by the charging-software firm YoCharge. The previous central scheme, FAME-II, paid for only 9,583. Private money paid for most of the rest.

PM E-DRIVE pays according to who owns the site. Every station needs the charger itself and the cables and transformer that connect it to the grid. 

Government offices that let the public charge for free get both paid for in full. Railway stations, bus depots, municipal car parks and state-run fuel stations get 80% of the grid connection and 70% of the charger.

Private sites, where franchise-style companies set up, get 80% of the grid connection and nothing towards the charger. The guidelines do not say why. Their working assumption appears to be that private sites can pay their own way. 

The grid work makes up about 60% of a station's cost, according to Mint, and operators put the charger at roughly 30%. At a private site, the operator or the site owner pays that 30% in full.

A few states fill part of the gap. Maharashtra's electric vehicle policy, notified on May 27, 2025, pays up to 15% of the cost of a public fast charger, capped at Rs 5 lakh.

But a station needs four charging points to qualify. In practice, two fast chargers with two cables each. 

Operators say only very busy hubs, such as stops on the Mumbai-Pune expressway, justify that.

Applying is opaque too. The government has not said how many proposals it has received or turned down. Its August reply to Parliament lists only approvals. 

Operators say they are rarely told how much money is left or why they were rejected. As one charging operator put it to me, publishing both would cost the government nothing.

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6.09%

That's India's retail inflation in October, up from 5.54% in September. It is above the RBI's upper tolerance limit of 6% for the first time in two years, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday.

It is also the highest since the new CPI series with base year 2024 was introduced. Higher food prices were the main driver.

By The Numbers: Food inflation rose to 8.94% from 7.74% in September.

Onions saw the sharpest rise at 116.22%, followed by garlic at 60.74%, ginger at 48.32% and lemon at 47.30%. Silver jewellery inflation was 52.39%. Potato prices fell 14.24%.

”While inflation trends across individual categories remain varied, the food component warrants particular attention given its significance in the consumption basket”, said Mr. Anil Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI).

Rural inflation rose to 6.63% from 6.08%, while urban inflation rose to 5.41% from 4.88%.

“Consequently, CPI inflation is projected to peak in Q3 FY27 and average around 5.0% for the full year. On the monetary policy front, given rising inflation expectations, and broadening price pressures there is a likelihood of 25-bps rate hike at the December policy meeting,” said Rajani Sinha, Chief Economist, CareEdge Ratings.

Fast Facts: Among large states, Andhra Pradesh recorded rural inflation of 7.81% and Karnataka 7.54%. The RBI's target is 4%, with a tolerance band of 2% on either side.

“The implications for monetary policy are becoming clearer. We expect the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI to retain its tightening bias and see scope for another repo rate hike of 25 basis points at its December review meeting,” said Dipti Deshpande, Principal Economist, Crisil Ltd.

The Trouble At Nvidia

Jensen Huang has resigned as the CEO of Nvidia, as reports of two extramarital affairs deepen a leadership crisis at the world's leading AI chipmaker.

Colette Kress, current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NVIDIA, will be serving as Interim Chief Executive Officer, Nvidia shared.

Pivot: The controversy began after reports linked him to Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman under US intelligence scrutiny over alleged assistance in shipping Nvidia chips to Chinese firms. The New York Times subsequently reported a separate relationship with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. The company has launched an independent investigation into the allegations.

Impact: Nvidia shares fell more than 8% in extended trading. The company has lost about $600 billion in market value since its board announced the investigation.

Reliance’s Big Bet On Coal Gas

Reliance Industries plans to invest about Rs 430 billion ($4.59 billion) in a plant to convert underground coal into gas in Andhra Pradesh, Reuters reported. The two-phase project could eventually draw up to Rs 2.7 trillion in investment.

The project adds to a wave of investment in Andhra Pradesh, including Google’s $15 billion AI hub and Kia’s planned $2 billion second plant announced on Thursday.

The Lead: The first phase, costing about Rs 30 billion, will cover exploration, geological studies and pilot demonstrations to test feasibility. The second, requiring an initial Rs 400 billion, will begin after successful trials and regulatory approvals.

Reliance secured the Chintalpudi Sector A1 and Recherla coal blocks in Eluru district in April, under India’s first commercial auctions allowing underground coal gasification.

Setting: India imports around 250 million tonnes of coal and 26 million tonnes of LNG. India is pushing coal gasification to cut reliance on imported fuels and chemicals, targeting 100 million tonnes of annual capacity by 2030. Gas made from coal can be used to generate power or turned into natural gas and ammonia, which is used to make urea, a fertiliser India mostly buys from abroad.

India's Oil Pivot Back To Gulf

India’s crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf have overtaken Russian supplies for the first time since the Iran war began, as tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz recover, according to a Bloomberg report.

By The Numbers: Shipments through the critical waterway have risen to 2.1 million barrels per day so far in November, surpassing Russian imports of 1.8 million barrels per day, data from analytics firm Kpler showed. Flows through Hormuz had plunged to just 247,000 barrels per day in April, from 2.8 million in February, following attacks on vessels amid the US-Iran conflict.

Context: Russia had emerged as India's biggest crude supplier after Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 pushed Moscow to offer discounted oil to Asian buyers. However, the recovery in Gulf supplies, competitive pricing and rising Russian freight costs are now drawing Indian refiners back to traditional Middle Eastern suppliers. Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have added to the pressure on Moscow's exports.

Kia Expands Andhra Footprint

South Korea’s Kia and its suppliers plan to invest about $2 billion in a second manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh, with production expected to begin in early 2030, the automaker said on Thursday.

Overview: The new facility, to be built on 465 acres in Anantapur, including land for suppliers, will produce both internal combustion and electric vehicles. It will add 2 lakh units to Kia India’s current annual capacity of 4.30 lakh and lift Kia’s combined investment across its two Indian plants to about $5 billion.

Catch Up Quick: The existing plant in Anantapur began mass production in August 2019 and makes models including the Seltos, Sonet, Syros, Carens, Carnival and Sorento. In FY2026, Kia produced 3.17 lakh vehicles in India, dispatching 2.89 lakh units to the domestic market and exporting 27,953. Its retail market share stood at 6% in FY26, similar to the previous year.

Setup: The move comes as global carmakers, including Suzuki, Toyota and Honda, expand in India, the world’s third-largest car market.

“India is central to Kia’s long-term growth ambitions,” said Kia India CEO Gwanggu Lee.

Elon Musk. Jensen Huang. Washington. What’s the Connection?

AI is moving into the physical economy.  

Elon is building it. Jensen sees it in Agriculture. Washington is backing it. And DIT AgTech is already putting it to work in livestock. 

Most investors haven’t connected the dots yet. 

At $1 a share, you still can.

Connect the Dots

Will The Markets Affair With AI Take A Pause?

On Episode 1032 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Ajay Kedia, Founder and Director at Kedai Advisory; Himanshu Sinha, Head of Tax Practice at Trilegal; and, Vineet Jain, Senior Director at CareEdge Ratings.

• Will The Markets Affair With AI Take A Pause?

• Inflation Continues To Rise

• Why Are Turmeric Prices Hitting Record Highs?

• Decoding The Latest Direct Tax Collection Numbers

• NBFC Loan Growth Is Galloping Away, Including Due To Gold Loans

• The First Roadblock To AI Agents Are Coming