Indraprastha Gas to enter EV charging space, says MD Sanjay Kumar

With a focus on the Delhi market, Indraprastha Gas is looking to enter the electric vehicles’ charging space, the firm’s managing director Sanjay Kumar said on June 5.

“We are presently working on more than 50 charging stations and on some other initiatives also in EV, but if the rules are adopted like they are, it will impact aggregators, they will decide to go towards EV more and more,” Kumar told CNBC-TV18.

The natural gas distribution company’s MD said analysis by experts indicates that a hybrid model supported by CNG may be the best solution for mobility in the coming decade.

“EV would definitely come but the infrastructure for charging, feasibility of charging, time taken in charging — all those issues will come up. Moreover, it will be limited to more affluent cities like Delhi and Mumbai, etc,” he noted.

The IGL MD’s comments came on the sidelines of an interaction about CNG and PNG volumes picking up. He said industrial and commercial segment volumes are currently at 1 Million Metric Standard Cubic Meters per Day (mmscmd) as against all-time High volumes of 1.2 mmscmd.

He noted that prices have also been cut in the industrial and commercial segment, following which his firm is clocking more than 8.2 5 million cubic metres per day.

He also said that 8-10 percent of total gas the firm distributes is sold to DTC and 12-15 percent to Ola and Uber.

Speaking about this month, he said EBITDA in June continues to be slightly more than Rs 7.50 as against the guidance of Rs 8, which he asserted the company would meet.

“The conversion is presently more than 14,000, which last quarter was between 13,000 and 14,000 and now, it is more than 14,000. The waiting list of CNG vehicles is increasing, it will translate into actual purchases,” he said.