An entrepreneur keen on starting a battery charging startup can think of himself as setting up a green fuel distribution infrastructure.
But when the demand for that green fuel is very small, and when tghe fuel is a commodity that turns in low margins, one needs to really think if the business can fly on its own.
This is the question that many Indian EV charging startups need to ask themselves - is it feasible to run a pureplay EV battery charging startup profitably in India?
Or is it a better idea to be the technology provider for EV charging infra players?
To me, it appears that five years down the line, the EV charging firms will the same as those who run wires above us, or pipes below us, or those who put fuel into our vehicles - basically the utilities or the oil companies.
I cannot see how pureplay startups can build enough assets around charging alone to make it sustainable. They need to have control on enough portion of value chain and they need to achieve scale - it appears that I'm describing a utility firm here, doesn't it?
