Macquarie Capital invests in India’s ChargeZone to expand its fast-charging network

Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory, capital markets, and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group has announced a strategic investment into ChargeZone, a leading Indian EV charging company.

The investment from Macquarie Capital will allow ChargeZone to accelerate its business strategy and further develop its cloud technology-enabled EV charging network. This substantial minority stake acquisition will support the growth of electric vehicle infrastructure and green mobility in India. Macquarie Capital’s expertise will support the next stage of the business’ growth as ChargeZone seeks to meet the rapidly growing demand for faster charging infrastructure in India.

India is now the world’s most populous country, with rising consumer demand and a growing manufacturing sector.¹ This creates extra demand for energy and transportation which will drive a significant rise in the country’s energy imports.² As such, the Indian Government has stressed the need to decarbonise the transport sector and set target of 30 per cent electrification of country’s vehicles by 2030.³ Accelerating the deployment of rapid charging infrastructure will help facilitate this transition.

Mr. Kartikey Hariyani, Founder and CEO, ChargeZone expressed his enthusiasm, stating, "We are delighted to embark on this journey with Macquarie Capital and look forward to driving positive change in India's electric vehicle ecosystem. This partnership will accelerate our efforts to create a greener and more efficient future for urban transportation.

“Our ultimate goal has been to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and the deployment of EV charging infrastructure throughout India. This collaboration with Macquarie Capital marks a significant milestone in our relentless pursuit of that goal and signifies our commitment to transitioning India's urban transportation towards sustainability, supporting the nation's objectives of reducing carbon emissions and promoting clean mobility.”

Mr. Ivan Varughese, Senior Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure and Energy Capital, Asia Pacific, Macquarie Capital, stated that “We are excited to enable ChargeZone to expand its portfolio of electric transportation infrastructure, as well as move the needle towards wider and faster adoption of electric vehicles. The energy transition continues to be a key area of focus, as we leverage our deep sector expertise to help clients develop sustainable and critical infrastructure assets that connect local communities and drive decarbonisation efforts in India.”

As part of their commitment to sustainability, ChargeZone actively utilizes renewable energy sources to power the charging stations with the aim of having a significant number of chargers powered by renewable energy by 2030. Currently, 80% of their charging stations are Company Owned ChargeZone Operated (COCO) while the remaining are under an industry-first scheme of Dealer Owned ChargeZone Operated (DOCO) while their tech IP driven operating system viz. ChargeCloud ensures their availability and functionality.

Being an early mover in the EV space, ChargeZone has various OEMs, eMobility and locational partnerships including Audi, Hyundai, MG Motors, Kia, Mahindra & Mahindra, Switch Mobility, AshokLeyland, VolvoEicher, Tata Motors, SnapE, and Everest Fleet.

As of March 2023, ChargeZone has more than 3,500+ charging points across more than 1,500 EV charging stations in operations or construction in 37 Indian cities and has covered more than 20,000 kms of highways and aims to reach one million charging points by 2030. ChargeZone will increasingly integrate solar and wind power generation for their charging stations wherever feasible per the electricity regulations with respect to each of the state policies.

Macquarie Group has been active in India for over 16 years, and currently employs over 1,800 people in the country. Macquarie Capital recently invested in the digital infrastructure business CloudExtel and continues to look for more investment opportunities in the digital infrastructure and energy transition sectors in India and across Asia.

About ChargeZone

ChargeZone is one of few companies globally, with an integrated technology and engineering capabilities to build EV Charging Networks, specializing in high-speed charging networks for electric buses/trucks and electric cars across the enterprise and the retail network on both dedicated and opportunity-based charging using smart-grid networks. Headquartered at Vadodara (Gujarat, India), ChargeZone has spearheaded the fast charging infrastructure with indigenous development of the technology of mobile-app and CMS with firmware/web-socket cloud-based computing for super-fast EV charging as well as battery swapping. ChargeZone is on a green mission to establish one million charging points across important markets of EVs in India for all 4W categories of vehicles including cars, buses and trucks.

1. Macquarie’s India Big Book of Trends 2023
2. “In the coming fiscals, crude oil demand is expected to grow 3%-4% annually, leading to a strong imperative shift from fuel-powered vehicles” - https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_in/topics/automotive-and-transportation/2022/ey-electrifying-indian-mobility-report.pdf
3. https://www.investindia.gov.in/team-india-blogs/indias-ev-economy-future-automotive-transportation#:~:text=The%20Indian%20government%20has%20set,growth%20of%20the%20EV%20industry