[TusharK]

Magenta has partnered with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) to launch ChargeGrid Flare - India's first street-lamp EV charger.



ChargeGrid Flare consists of an efficient LED lamp mounted on a street light pole. The equipment for the electric charger is mounted on the pole itself. It has an integrated payment gateway and users can pay using the ChargeGrid App.

The chargers can be monitored remotely and therefore, it doesn't require a marshal to monitor, maintain and operate them.



According to the company, these low-cost chargers are ideal for street / corporate parking lots and retail outlets. It will also enable cities to deploy curb side chargers rapidly.

Magenta aims to install more than 1000 ChargeGrid Flare chargers in India by the end of 2021.

[Thilak29]

The beauty of this technology advancement is one corner lamp post in a petrol bunk can do the job !

[srini1785]

The idea itself is not novel as its been implemented before :

https://www.fleeteurope.com/en/new-e...=London&curl=1

Its also not a fast charger and would take 3-4hrs for complete charging. Nevertheless, a good starting point.

[Shreyans_Jain]

What is the specification on this charger? What kind of charging standards is it compatible with? Hope this is not a 15amp 3pin socket integrated into the pole.

A minimum of 5 or 7kw should be standardised for all new public charging infrastructure being created.

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

What is the specification on this charger? What kind of charging standards is it compatible with? Hope this is not a 15amp 3pin socket integrated into the pole.

From the specifications on Magenta power's site it is a 7.2kW / 32A 1-phase charger with a Type 2 output connector. Also other networking specifications seem pretty decent. Link to product page.



This is a welcome move from private companies starting to come up with practical solutions. Now we all hope that government wakes up and makes uninterrupted power supply as it's main agenda and also works on making the grid smarter to balance loads, when there are more people adopting to EVs.

[speedmiester]

Welcome move.
The good thing about these chargers are it's built into the street lamp and can be easily installed across fuel and food outlets on the highway to increase EV charging infrastructure.

Hope the cost of the installation is not too high.

[DarthVeda]

Unfortunately, this is not going to help the Nexon EV, as we are stuck with 2.7kw for AC charging. This is useful for MG ZS EV and Kona EV.

[TorqueIndia]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

Unfortunately, this is not going to help the Nexon EV, as we are stuck with 2.7kw for AC charging. This is useful for MG ZS EV and Kona EV.

Works with Tigor EV it seems , atleast from the official pics.

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

Unfortunately, this is not going to help the Nexon EV, as we are stuck with 2.7kw for AC charging. This is useful for MG ZS EV and Kona EV.

Thanks for this. Have never checked the onboard charger specifications of Nexon EV. Looks like Tigor EV has the same problem. Instead of taking a dig at other carmakers, hope TATA spends the time and money usefully to come up with atleast 11kW onboard chargers (converter) in the forthcoming models or facelifts.

Originally Posted by TorqueIndia

Works with Tigor EV it seems , atleast from the official pics.

It will work for sure. Doesn’t mean Tigor or Nexon will charge at 7.2kW, but only at their maximum capacity of ~3kW

[benu9714]

The lamp post charger is common in London. Please see my post :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/elect...tric-cars.html (UK: Lamp-post charging points for electric cars)

Lamp-posts exist everywhere. Now somebody has to work out how best to convert them to charging points.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Thilak29

The beauty of this technology advancement is one corner lamp post in a petrol bunk can do the job !

The real beauty is not at petrol bunks, it's on public streets! Check out the links above to see London's implementation of the same. 90% of India parks on public streets and the best time to charge EVs is overnight. Club those two points and its obvious that the biggest opportunity is to convert street lamps into EV chargers. I think it'll be easier + a big revenue opportunity for the public / private power companies.

[sridhar-v]

I hope that they ensure that the unit is mounted high enough that the doggies marking the post don't corrode the electrical connectors.

[DarthVeda]

Originally Posted by TorqueIndia

Works with Tigor EV it seems , atleast from the official pics.

I was referring to the lamp post one, the one in PIC is standalone charge, which looks like it is 15kw one. The problem of EV in our country is that the fleet cars are all using old charger, and there are no fleet cars available using CCS2. As a EV charger provider, what do you install? An old charger which serves the few thousands of Electric vehicles that exist or CCS2 to serve a non-existant fleet cars but something which could come in few years.

[Jhinchak]

This is definitely a step in the right direction. Surely this is sufficient for at least in terms of emergency when the vehicle is completely drained of charge and you are stranded.

[Dr.Vikas]

That's simply a great initiative by Magenta & HPCL collaboration.
It'll surely help expanding the e-Charging facility to large population of motorists this way.
I think, the initial flaws if any observed in the system would be resolved soon and it'd be available freely for seamless operation.
Even at public places like hotel parking, govt offices, retail outlets etc this facility would be easy to install and would certainly get popularized in near future.