A major issue that the EV industry was staring at was that everyone had their own connector standards in the absence of a standardised connector and regulated standards.

Now it seems like there is a genuine solution to this problem. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has approved the country’s first-ever indigenously developed AC and DC Combined Charging connector standard for light electric vehicles. This is also the world's first combined AC and DC charging connector standard for light electric vehicles IS17017 (Part 2 / Sec 7): 2023, and is designed and engineered in India, in part by Ather Energy.

Ather has about 1,500 fast charging stations at the moment, and Swapnil Jain, co-founder of Ather Energy, expects this to quadruple with the standard coming in place. He explained that no third party could come in and set up the infrastructure because everyone had a proprietary design. "Because you have a standard now, all the OEMs can use the same standard, you can have a very high level of compatibility between two OEMs," Jain said. 

At the same time, independent charging station operators can establish charging stations, which essentially means that this will completely open up the market for increasing the number of fast charging stations and even slow charging stations across the country. 

"After a lot of work with the committee about a month back, this was finalised that the charging connector, which we had developed, is something that suits Indian needs the most, and helps with all sorts of requirements. Maybe not just two-wheelers, maybe even micro four-wheelers," Jain said.

Since it can take AC current, DC current and even fast charging current, it incorporates all sorts of safety norms, which are required from an international standards perspective, and also allows for integration of payment systems. "Now that this has been approved, we are starting to work with various ministries and departments to ensure that for all the two-wheeler requirements, it will be this same connector itself. I think that is the next line of work that we have," Jain explained. 

With inputs from Radhika Dave.