Mahindra World City, Chennai has entered into a partnership with electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery swapping solutions provider EVRE to enable EV-readiness for the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) commercial integrated township spread over 1,500 acres.
With this deployment, Mahindra World City Chennai, which is an 89:11 alliance between Mahindra Lifespace Developers and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), will be the country’s largest electric vehicle compliant commercial space.
As per the agreement, EVRE will install charging stations at various locations in the integrated city over the next three years. The first batch of charging points will be made available to the customers by the end of this month.
“Mahindra World City, Chennai, India’s first integrated city established in PPP, is a future-focused, planned, integrated development that has been built and operates on environmentally responsible principles and is already the chosen business destination for over 65 transnational and Indian companies. We recognise that the future of mobility is expected to veer towards electric vehicles, and have thus partnered with EVRE to set up charging points across Mahindra World City,” said Rajaram Pai, Chief Business Officer – Industrial, Mahindra Lifespace Developers.
Mahindra World City Chennai is the country’s first integrated business city with commercial and residential properties, spread across two locations in Chennai, while EVRE is a leading integrated EV charging infrastructure player in the country.
Through this initiative, EVRE will install its proprietary product, Intellipole that is a solar street light integrated with a hybrid charger compatible with 2, 3, and 4 wheelers, and an Air Quality Index system. The street light and the AQI Index will bank upon solar power as a symbol for the drive towards using clean energy systems through sustainable measures. EVRE owns the design patent for Intellipole.
“It gives us pride to partner with Mahindra World City that has been at the forefront of providing world-class commercial and residential realty experiences, and create the country’s first EV-ready commercial township of this scale. With IntelliPole, a one-of-a-kind product designed, developed and manufactured by EVRE, we aim to enable integrated EV infrastructure in smart cities and support the Make in India initiative,” said Krishna Jasti, Co-Founder, EVRE.
According to him, sustainable practices to power EVs need to be the priority for effective utilization of electric mobility, and measures must be taken to integrate the charging infrastructure with clean energy generation.
The benefit for the commercial developer here is the zero-capex model, wherein EVRE will design, conceptualise, manufacture, operate and maintain these pay-per-use electric charging stations. Further, EVRE will share a portion of the revenues from the per unit charges with Mahindra World City on a periodical basis.
Established in 2002, MWC Chennai is home to over 65 global and domestic companies including BMW, Infosys, Fujitec, NTN Bearings, Lear Automotive, TVS Group of companies, Armstrong, BASF and Force Motors. The integrated city at MWC Chennai has generated direct and indirect employment for over 1 lakh people.
The Bangalore-based start-up has recently entered into an agreement with realty major Hiranandani Group also to convert its mega township, Hiranandani Estate and Properties, in Thane near Mumbai into an electric vehicle charging-enabled township, making it one of India’s first such large real estate projects.
The Hiranandani Estate condominium-style township near Mumbai boasts of over 200 buildings including residences and malls spread over 350 acres.
The government has already started encouraging automobile manufacturers to ramp up local production of electric vehicles to increase the number of zero-emission vehicles plying on Indian roads, reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil imports and curb vehicular pollution.
Company says it is witnessing stronger than anticipated demand for EVs, may need $ 1.5 billion worth of capital, wants more players to enter industry.