Panasonic life solutions India, which is essentially the erstwhile Anchor Electricals, is projecting a substantial growth in the nascent electric charging equipment segment which it expects will account for almost 10 percent of overall revenues by the turn of this decade. Panasonic is one of the only big consumer electronic companies to have ventured into this space which is otherwise dominated by pure-play firms like ABB, Schneider, Delta Power and Exicom.
“The EV space is a new business for us and the supply section of the business will be about INR 250 Million by the end of the current financial year. However, the pipeline of enquiries is large, which includes the various EOI from electric bus manufacturers and charging service providers,” said said Dinesh Aggarwal, deputy managing director, Panasonic Life Solutions India. “EV portfolio will certainly constitute about 10 percent of our total portfolio by year FY2030 if the government’s plan for EV adoption and EV charging stations creation remains on track,”
“If you go by studies, the prediction for the number of charging stations in future is about four lakh. These would include bus depots and I think roughly about 60-65% will be DC fast charging. So for me to imagine this segment to be worth Rs 250 crore by 2025-26 on our overall top line currently at Rs 4400 crore is not off the line. It has to grow into that size of a business,” Aggarwal added.
India’s electrification journey has been one of fits and starts. Except for two and three wheelers, penetration levels are still low. Passenger and commercial vehicles are also the two segments that would require out of home fast charging and that is where Panasonic is forecasting most of the action.
We are already seeing an uptick in demand. The market till now for buses alone is about INR 12,000 crore and we’re looking at about INR 600 crores of potential value for charging infrastructureDinesh Aggarwal, Deputy MD, Panasonic Life Solutions India
will be needed– either an AC or DC at office or commercial complex. So the estimate is about one and a half percent of the total value of the car will be required for charging infra. Of course, there are many challenges to overcome and space and power availability is one of the biggest issues today for establishing the EV infrastructure within the city.”
The company will also target two wheelers that would need top up charging during the course of the day with a 16 Ampere lockable AC outlet solution.
“This “smart outlet” will enable user identification, measurement of energy consumption and allow residential societies to monitor the
consumption by the residents to accordingly bill them,” Aggarwal added. “It will also have a widespread application in many public and commercial parking spaces like office parking, parking in schools, colleges, shopping malls etc. We are also planning to partner with 2-wheeler and car OEMs for this outlet with their vehicle. Another set of chargers are being developed for car dealerships, auto repair shops and commercial buildings, giving us a large potential market. We plan to bring innovative and cost-effective solutions in the Indian EV space for various segments going ahead. This will help us consolidate our technological leadership position in the market. While we expect to sell about 30,000 AC chargers annually; we hope to sell at least 100 high-capacity DC chargers per month by FY2025.”
Besides fast charging, experts believe battery swapping could be another enabler of electrification as it mitigates the problem of range anxiety. Panasonic however believes it will be tough for battery swapping to take off especially for buses and commercial vehicles and the company has no plans to get into it for now.
“We haven’t thought about it. It’s not easy. You need real estate and a dedicated power supply. Both are challenges,” Aggarwal added. “I can’t imagine how companies are going to supply power to a battery swapping and charging station because you might be charging 20-30 batteries at one go at the same time. Imagine the kind of power that will be drawn and in most cases existing transmission lines will not be able to support that kind of a load. You would need a dedicated transmission line.”
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In India the availability of charging infrastructure is not proportionate to the spread of electric vehicles. Despite the full-throttle plans to prepare for the future of electric mobility, India continues to battle limited charging ecosystem across the country. It is imperative to set up multiple charging units that are well-distributed and can even constitute solo parking slots. This will allow for a rapidly scalable EV charging network, which leverages the ubiquitous low-tension (LT) electricity distribution infrastructure. The success of EVs will be predicated on the success of charging infrastructure, and the partnerships and collaborations of various stakeholders to develop it.
