New Delhi, Sept 22: Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz India has pitched for a common platform to provide real-time information about all available charging stations operated by different service providers to make it more convenient for electric vehicle owners. Mercedes-Benz India MD and CEO Santosh Iyer pointed out that the common app would go a long way in enhancing customer convenience and help in pushing electric vehicle adoption in the country. In an interaction with PTI, Iyer noted that there is a need to democratise charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
“Today, if you buy an electric car, you need 3-4 different apps on your phone. What we are requesting the government is to come up with something like a UPI-based system,” Iyer said. India is a leader in digital technology, but when it comes to charging, there are still multiple apps, he stated.
“They (apps) don’t talk to each other...
Payment gateways are not in sync..If it can be solved the convenience of EVs will be next level,” Iyer said.
Citing an example, he said Mercedes customers in Germany and many parts of the world are capable of making payments for a variety of services, including charging, from an app. “But in India, we are not able to execute fully because we don’t have a single charge point operator who can aggregate it. So this is the request we keep saying, make convenience the core of EV ownership,” Iyer said.
If the system is made convenient, customers will shift to EVs but if it re.