Aiming to bring all the electric vehicle players on a single platform, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi on 13 September launched an open database facility for EV charging and battery-swapping stations on its Switch Delhi portal.
Through this database, the Union territory’s all EV players will get open access to more than 2,500 charging points in Delhi and can further develop platforms to provide seamless information about charging and battery-swapping stations to all EV users in Delhi.
“In 2021, the Delhi government came up with an open database for bus transit, which was a big success. The same is being used by Google, Uber, and many more. With the launch of the open database for EV charging, Delhi is making a move towards solving the biggest problem of EV users, which is range anxiety,” Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.
“It will enable them to use their favorite apps to locate more than 2,500 charging points and battery-swapping stations across Delhi and the number is expected to reach 18,000 by 2025,” he added.
Earlier on 7 August 2020, the Union territory government had notified the Delhi Electric Vehicles policy. Clause 6.4.2 of the policy states: “An open, publicly-owned database shall be developed by Transport Department, GNCTD, offering historical and real-time information on public charging infrastructure….”
According to details, the database can be accessed by the registered entities and individuals for submission and retrieval of historical and real-time information pertaining to public charging and swapping infrastructure.
Following the registration on the open database portal, the charging service providers will be able to access the data related to all EV chargers and battery-swapping stations both in static and dynamic formats by submitting a request through the portal.
After that private API key will be instantly shared when the request is submitted and a decision on authorizing the request will be provided within 48 hours of submitting the request, the officials added.
All entities operating public and/or semi-public EV charging or swapping stations will be required to submit data to the open database within three weeks of the notification of the order, says the mandate of the Delhi EV policy, adding The database can be used for free by the in-vehicle navigation systems and charging apps and maps.
