ThunderPlus and Turno to establish a megawatt charging network in India

ThunderPlus and Turno will deploy 1 MW charging stations along key highways to support electric buses on long-haul routes across cities and states. To begin with, the companies will set up the high-capacity chargers on the 600+ km Hyderabad-Vizag route, connecting the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, respectively.

Commenting on the collaboration with ThunderPlus, Sudhindra Reddy, co-founder and COO of Turno, suggested the duo plans to electrify the Hyderabad-Vizag corridor in two phases. “We are starting with the Hyderabad and Vijayawada route and we would be expanding this partnership to (the) Vijayawada-Vizag route,” Reddy said.

Turno provides electrification solutions for large vehicle segments. Speaking further, Reddy revealed that the partners will build a network of more than 100 charging stations across India by 2027. “Through this collaboration, Electrigo [a subsidiary of Turno] aims to replace 10 crore bus kilometres of diesel consumption with electric by the end of 2026, marking a significant step towards a cleaner, more sustainable future,” he said. ThunderPlus will likely source, install, and operate the chargers.

ThunderPlus is mainly targeting electric buses with the megawatt charging network, but it will not restrict their usage to these heavy-duty EVs. It says these charging hubs will be semi-public outlets, instilling confidence among even private customers to charge their electric cars on inter-city and inter-state routes.

Electric truck operators may also benefit. Even though trucks make up for just 3% of vehicles on Indian roads, they account for more than 34% of CO2 and 53% of particulate matter emissions in the transport sector. Last year, India’s Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) announced an outlay of 500 crore Indian rupees (approx. 53 million euros) in subsidies for electric trucks and other emerging electric vehicle categories. Compared to the fund of 4,391 crore Indian rupees (approx. 466 million euros) for electric bus subsidy, though, that’s a minuscule figure.

The initiative is part of ThunderPlus’ programme called ‘One District, One Thunder.’ The company’s goal is to ensure that each Indian district has at least one high-powered charger.

autocarpro.in, energetica-india.net, youtube.com (video of Sudhindra Reddy)