MG Motor India and Fortum announce installation of the first public 50 kW DC fast charging station in Gurugram

Carmaker in partnership with Fortum unveils strong network of 4 fast-charging stations in Delhi-NCR

New Delhi, Nov. 19: Underlining its commitment towards catalysing an EV revolution, MG (Morris Garages) Motor India and Fortum Charge & Drive India today unveiled the first 50 kW DC charging station at MG’s flagship showroom at Gurugram. The charging station has been installed by Finland-based clean energy major Fortum and was unveiled and operationalised for public use by Mr. Anil Shrivastava, IAS, Principal Consultant & MD, Mission on Transformative Mobility & Battery Storage, NITI Aayog, ahead of the launch of MG Motor’s first pure electric car – the MG ZS EV, in December 2019.

Under the partnership, starting with the national capital, Fortum has installed four public 50 kW fast charging stations in South Delhi, West Delhi, Noida & Gurugram respectively. Besides, six more public 50 KW DC fast chargers have been installed at MG’s Dealer locations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The smart chargers can be accessed by an EV user owning vehicles compatible with CCS/CHAdeMO charging standards and by registering with Fortum Charge & Drive India through its Mobile App.

“With an aim to be the leader in the EV segment in India, we are pulling out all stops to ensure adequate charging infrastructure for our first EV customers. Our endeavour is to create a robust ecosystem for EVs, right from charging to end-of-life for electric vehicles in India and the installation of the first public fast charger is the first major step in this direction. The upcoming launch of the MG ZS EV is aligned with the government’s long-term objective to have more electric vehicles on the road in the next few years,” said Rajeev Chaba, President & Managing Director, MG Motor India.

Speaking on the fast charger installation, Mr. Anil Shrivastava, IAS, Principal Consultant & MD, Mission on Transformative Mobility & Battery Storage, NITI Aayog, said, “Cleaner fuels are the need of the hour in the automotive industry and India is ripe for an EV disruption. The carmakers, government and service providers need to work together to assure users of best-in-class support infrastructure to drive EV adoption, starting with Delhi-NCR region.”

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Managing Director, Fortum India, said, “Fortum has a vision to make world cleaner. We are happy to establish India’s first public charging network of 50 KW DC chargers in partnership with MG. We have already witnessed an uptake in adoption of electric vehicles in the last one year through our existing charging network of 15/20 DC001 Chargers. This collaboration will further bolster this growth. As one of the key players, we are constantly evaluating the Indian market for charging infrastructure and will continue to give a pleasant charging experience to EV users through our partnership like one with MG.”

The move further underscores MG Motor India’s vision of catalysing and accelerating the country’s EV transformation by creating an ecosystem for EVs in India. In addition to Fortum, the brand has partnered with Delta Electronics to install AC chargers in its showrooms and workshops across India, as well as private vehicle parking locations such as homes and offices. The carmaker has also partnered with Delhi-based eChargeBays to assist its customers in setting up infrastructure at their home for charging their EVs.

MG Motor has also recently launched #ChangeWhatYouCan, a global campaign featuring Benedict Cumberbatch that raises awareness about the critical need to shift towards green mobility. With the launch of its first public charging station, the future-ready carmaker has taken a major step towards achieving its long-term vision of promoting sustainable mobility in the country by strengthening India’s nascent EV charging ecosystem.

About MG Motor India

Founded in the UK in 1924, Morris Garages vehicles were world-famous for their sports cars, roadsters, and cabriolet series. MG vehicles were much sought after by many celebrities, including the British Prime Ministers and even the British Royal Family, for their styling, elegance, and spirited performance. The MG Car Club, set up in 1930 at Abingdon in the UK, has more than a million loyal fans, making it by far one of the world’s largest clubs for a car band. MG has evolved into a modern, futuristic and innovative brand over the last 95 years. MG Motor India has commenced its manufacturing operations at its car manufacturing plant at Halol in Gujarat.

About Fortum

Fortum is a leading clean-energy company that provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. We want to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. We employ some 8,000 professionals in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India. In 2018, our sales were EUR 5.2 billion and 57% of our electricity generation was CO2 free. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.fortum.com. Fortum Charge & Drive is a pioneer in electric vehicle charging. As Charge Point Operator it has a network of more than 3000 smart chargers in Nordic country out of which more than 30% are DC quick chargers. Starting with a pilot in October 2017, Fortum has already made 62 DC Fast charging points operational in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. Fortum Charge & Drive also offers a cloud solution to Electric Vehicle (EV) charging service providers and infrastructure investors. The cloud-based (SaaS) architecture enables flexible, pay-as-you-grow models, and white/grey label alternatives. This service is configured to suit a wide array of custom requirements, from back-end administration allowing an operator to see the status of charger, control charging (e.g. start, stop, restart), manage charging, connect and configure chargers, Remote monitoring and diagnostics, and Price plan administration, to the front-end branding of the consumer mobile app and web portal. The Charge & Drive SaaS cloud solution is hardware agnostic.