Supporting Centre’s green energy drive, Bengaluru based Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have built a fast electric vehicle (EV) charging station at the latter’s retail outlet at Amravati Enclave near Pinjore on the Chandigarh-Shimla Highway.
“The charging station has two guns of 25KW each. BEL’s Panchkula unit is working towards meeting India’s global commitment to reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resulting in a reduction of fossil fuel imports,” the PSU said in a statement.
It added that BEL has indigenously developed EV slow and fast chargers, in addition to creating EV charging infrastructure in cities and highways. The ministry of heavy industries has entrusted BEL with the task of setting up EV charging infrastructure at four highways/expressways.
While defence is the mainstay of BEL and has traditionally been contributing to around 80% of the PSU’s annual sales revenue, the company has, however, been exploring diversification into allied non-defence areas, energy storage products for EVs — Li-ion and fuel cells, charging stations, etc — is one of them.
“BEL is known to be an eco-friendly company. We have clean and green campuses at all our units across India. Renewable energy from BEL’s captive solar and wind power plants contributes to around 49.4% of our total energy consumption. BEL is diversifying into many areas of non-defence, including energy storage products. We fully endorse the Centre’s green energy mission and the setting up of this station is one more step in that direction,” Dinesh Kumar Batra, CMD, BEL, said.
Debashis Chakravarty, Chief General Manager, HPCL said the firm was focused on the expansion of the business profile with a greater presence in the clean energy segment.
“We are working towards making our retail outlets multi-fuel so that mobility solutions can be provided for whichever vehicles customers choose to drive. More than 1,100 EV charging stations have already been set up in our 20,000 plus outlets across India,” he added.
