ChargeZone to ramp up capital expenditure in FY26

Vadodara-based EV charging startup ChargeZone, which has announced its partnership with various charge-point operators, including Statiq, Pulse, Chargemod, Electreefi, and Ennovator, to emerge as the single-largest CPO in the country with a network strength of over 13,500 EV charging stations across the country, is bullish about the business potential in the coming future.

The company, which was founded in 2019, and has invested almost Rs 400 crore in creating its proprietary charging management software – ChargeCloud – and setting up physical charging stations in urban, sub-urban, and highway corridors of the country, is planning to double down upon its investments in this financial year.

While it is backed by Macquarie Capital and British International Investment, ChargeZone has also raised Rs 300 crore in debt from nationalised banks such as SBI. ChargeZone is also eyeing a Series B fundraise later in the calendar to fuel its growth ambitions.

It aims to infuse a similar capital (around Rs 300-400 crore) in FY26 to further expand its existing company-owned, company-operated network of almost 5,400 chargers, which form nearly 40% of the total chargers accessible on its platform after its latest alliance that leverages OCPI roaming, or Open Charge Point Interface roaming that allows multiple CPOs to provide service under a unified network.

“At ChargeZone, we have been building an electric charging network since 2019. While we were India’s second-largest CPO so far, with the latest arrangement with our peers, we have become the leading CPO in the country. Our business model has been about investing and building charging stations, and therefore, we are building gas stations of the future by delivering electricity for EVs,” Kartikey Hariyani, Founder & CEO, ChargeZone, told Autocar Professional.

“Our infrastructure and technology have been our differentiators since the beginning as all our points are unmanned. So far, we have electrified almost 36,000km of Indian highways across the length and breadth of the country,” he added.

Utilisation rate growing at 30% QoQ

With a total user base of over 250,000 EV users, the company’s charging stations average a monthly active user base of around 8,000 vehicles, of which, nearly 5,500 are electric cars, while the remaining are electric trucks and buses.

It offers a network of DC fast and super-fast chargers, having charging speeds in the range of 360kW to 1.2MW, thus, catering to both personal and fleet operators. ChargeZone claims to have hit the 10GWh per month energy sales at its network last month, and despite the headwinds being faced by EV adoption, is optimistic for future growth in the business.

“Currently, the utilisation rate of our chargers has increased beyond 5% for personal vehicle charging, and over 22.5% in case of fleet charging. We are growing at 30% on a QoQ basis in terms of the utilisation rate of our chargers. There is going to be a strong adoption of EVs in India, not just for cars, but for buses and trucks that will rule the roost in logistics. A single inter-city EV bus or truck can consume 200-300 units of electricity per charge. That is where the future lies,” he said. 

“Our spread for fleet charging includes electric buses, e-LCVs, and cars. We have a very widespread customer profile in the B2B EV charging domain,” Hariyani added.

Eyeing 300% YoY growth in the future

Its core technology – ChargeCloud - allows it to act as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, wherein it also operates chargers for the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the UAE.

“Therefore, with the variety of cross-border experiences, we have been able to develop ChargeCloud extensively, with a clear focus on charging experience and reliability. We are a vertically integrated company, and we sell electricity to EVs to make money. Our business model is investing in chargers, and energy as a service,” he pointed out.

The company says it executes its operational strategies with an RoI target in the range of 5-6 years, and while it has already turned profitable at the balance sheet level in CY2022, ChargeZone will double down on capex for fleet and personal charging stations this year.

“While 2024 was a flat year for electric passenger vehicles, we are seeing a 50% year-on-year growth, and are aiming for 300% in the coming years. We are extremely bullish about the offtake of e-mobility in India. EV adoption is no longer a question of ‘if’ – it is already happening,” Hariyani signed off.