India’s goEgoNetwork to expand EV charging network
Pune based electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure startup goEgoNetwork has secured $2 million in seed funding.
goEgoNetwork, claimed as India’s first EV charging network, is positioning itself to meet the anticipated rapid growth of EVs in the country with a range of slow and fast chargers and charging services for homes, businesses and public locations.
The lack of a public charging infrastructure has been a barrier to the growth of EVs in India. As of March 2021 there were just 1,300 countrywide, according to data from the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles. By 2026 the number required is estimated at 400,000 and as many as 2.9 million to meet the demand of up to 28 million EVs by 2030.
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Indian Ministry of Power guidelines require at least one charging station in a 3kmx3km grid and every 25km on both sides of highways and roads, with one or more types of chargers to meet thee requirements for two, three and four wheel vehicles.
goEgo, part of Impactware Technology Solutions, was formed in 2019 and has a lab in the Netherlands, where its founders were working, and a manufacturing facility in Aurangabad in Maharashtra state about 300km inland from Mumbai.
The company intends as a next step is to open some ‘experience centres’ in the coming months.
The funding was raised by the Rishi Bagla of the Indian automotive component manufacturer Bagla Group and Olivier Guillaumond, Head of Global Innovation Labs and Fintech at ING Bank in the Netherlands.
After a lacklustre year for EV sales in India in 2020/21, with declines in the two and three-wheel EV segments which together account for 98% of the total, growth has started to pick up in the current year with an extension of subsidies and falling battery costs. A further boost is expected with the government’s initiative to develop a local battery manufacturing capacity.
