SmartChargEV, a start-up based out of Hyderabad, announced two flagship EV Charging infra projects aimed at facilitating unhindered interstate and intercity movement of electric vehicles. The Blue Wire project announced on World EV day will connect Srinagar to Kanyakumari with over 100 charging stations along 3657 km of NH-44 passing through major cities of Jammu, Pathankot, Ludhiana, Ambala, Delhi-NCR, Agra, Gwalior, Bhopal, Nagpur, Adilabad, Hyderabad, Kurnool, Anantapur, Bengaluru, Salem & Madurai.
Total 12 states and UTs are covered in this project. Their second project The Green Garland of India aims to enable EV mobility in 13 states and UTs along 7,000+ km of highways connecting Punjab to Kerala via Amritsar, Bathinda, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Goa, Mangalore, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram along the west coast of India and goes all the way up to Sikkim through east coastal cities of Thoothukudi, Ramanathapuram, Puducherry, Chennai, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata & Darjeeling. Over 200 EV charging stations and hubs to be set-up in this project, appearing like a huge green garland decorating India when seen on a map.
Overall, SmartChargEV will add EV charging facilities at 4000 locations in all 28 States and 9 Union Territories by 2025 and expand further to 23000 unique locations by 2031, with a mix of captive and franchise investment models. The start-up is slated to raise up to USD 20 million funding in near-term. SmartChargEV is building tech-integrated, smart network of EV charging stations and EV hubs at all urban, rural locations along 325,000 km of National, State highways and at all travel/holiday destinations pan-India. Incorporated as Mark8Smart E-Mobility Infra Pvt Ltd in March 2021, the start-up installed its first DC fast charging statio nnear Yadagirigutta, Telangana in April.
SmartChargEV is founded by Seshu Thotakura with a vision of REDESIGNING HOW INDIA MOVES. Before taking the entrepreneurship plunge, Seshu spent over 17 years in various leadership roles in Investment Banking sector. He was most recently with JP Morgan Chase & Co. as Vice President and previously with Deutsche Bank and Franklin Templeton.
Emphasizing on urgent need for everyone to switch to Electric Mobility, Mr. Thotakura said, Electric mobility is the SMARTER choice and only path forward to ensure a cleaner, LIVEABLE environment for current and future generations. Our missionis to help Fasttrack this transition from fuel-based vehicles to pollution-free electric vehicles in India. We are building EV infra combined with best-in-class travel amenities at our hubs to offer safe and convenient e-mobility experience to everyone, everywhere.
SmartChargEV provides most advanced tech-enabled AC chargers, DC fast and ultra-fast charging stations with wide range of configurations for all vehicle types. They design and install tailor made EV charging solutions a teach client location for homes, housing societies, for businesses in real estate, hospitality, logistics, fleet operators and all other retail, commercial establishments. Higher fuel prices coupled with increased awareness on environment, climate change and personal well being have significantly shifted consumer mindset towards sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives like electric vehicles.
With favourable policies and incentives for manufacturing of EV & Batteries, combined with encouraging subsidies by Union and State governments, the automobile landscape is changing very fast in favour of Electric vehicles across 2, 3 & 4- wheeler segments. charging stations and bridging the critical infrastructure gap, start-ups like SmartChargEV are positively contributing to accelerate this much-needed change.
