India’s EV charging infrastructure is increasingly being built around highways, and 2026 has brought several examples of faster chargers being positioned along major intercity routes. This shift is important because public charging needs change when an EV leaves the city: drivers care about charging speed, predictable locations, amenities and the ability to continue a long journey without a large detour.
The government reported in July 2026 that India had 52,718 public charging stations, including 16,561 with fast charging capability for cars, based on Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited data. The Ministry of Heavy Industries has also allocated ₹2,000 crore under PM E-DRIVE for EV public charging stations across India, including infrastructure in cities and along highways.
One visible example is the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway. Tata Power and Indian Oil have collaborated on ultra-fast charging infrastructure along the corridor. In May 2026, Tata Power announced 240 kW chargers at two Indian Oil wayside-amenity locations on the Haryana stretch. The expressway itself extends for roughly 1,350 kilometres, making corridor-based charging particularly relevant for long-distance EV travel.
Other routes are getting similar attention. Tata Power’s recent fast-charging expansion included hubs on the Yamuna Expressway connecting Greater Noida and Agra, the Hyderabad–Vijayawada corridor, the Bengaluru–Tirupati route and the Pune–Bengaluru corridor. The company described a network of 25 fast chargers across selected sites in Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, with combined capacity of 2.7 MW.
The equipment at these hubs also shows how charging power is rising. Tata Power reported individual hub capacities ranging from 180 kW to 600 kW, allowing multiple EVs to charge at the same time. In Mumbai, a high-capacity site near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport was described as having 16 charging guns and 600 kW of total capacity.
These projects illustrate a basic principle of EV infrastructure: location and speed have to work together. A 120 kW or 240 kW charger can make a highway stop much shorter than a low-power destination charger, but its value also depends on the vehicle’s charging capability, battery temperature, grid connection and charger uptime.
Highway charging is also becoming a multi-operator ecosystem. Public-sector oil companies, private charging firms, vehicle manufacturers and other infrastructure providers are participating in different parts of the network. Government guidelines are intended to support connected and interoperable charging infrastructure, while national programmes create a framework for wider deployment.
For Indian EV owners, this means long-distance travel is gradually becoming less dependent on a few isolated charging points. The emerging model combines city charging, highway fast-charging hubs and charging at existing fuel-station or roadside locations.
The road ahead still requires more coverage, better reliability and transparent information about charger availability. But the 2026 expansion shows that India’s EV infrastructure is increasingly being designed around the journeys people actually make, not only around individual cities.
Sources
Ministry of Heavy Industries / PIB — July 2026 charging data
Tata Power / IOCL — Delhi-Mumbai Expressway charging
Tata Power — 2026 fast-charging corridors
