Karnataka recently took pride in the fact that it has the highest number of public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations (5,059) in India. However, the distribution of these stations is far from equal. While Bengaluru Urban district has 4,281 and Bengaluru Rural district has 192 EV charging stations, no other district has even crossed the 100-mark.
Bengaluru is followed by Dakshina Kannada (73), Mysuru (57), and Belagavi (50) in terms of highest number of EV charging stations. In fact, in many districts, the number is in single digits.
Officials from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), which is the nodal agency for EV adaptation in Karnataka, attributed the low numbers in the districts to the lack of penetration of EVs in rural areas.