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Gulf Oil to invest Rs 50 crore, double EV charger capacity
Gulf Oil India Ltd plans to invest Rs 50 crore to nearly double its electric vehicle charger manufacturing capacity at its Ahmedabad plant to around 3,000 DC fast chargers from the current…
Gulf Oil India Ltd plans to invest Rs 50 crore to nearly double its electric vehicle charger manufacturing capacity at its Ahmedabad plant to around 3,000 DC fast chargers from the current 1,800, managing director and CEO Ravi Chawla told Mint in an interview. The expansion comes as India's e-bus market grows: sales hit 5,356 units in 2025-26, up 37% year-on-year. Gulf Oil holds a 65.18% stake in charger maker Tirex Transmission, which it first acquired for Rs 103 crore in FY24 and topped up with Rs 38 crore in FY26.
Gulf Oil, through Tirex, has roughly 40% of India's DC fast-charger market, Chawla said. The company estimates India's total EV charger market will be worth about Rs 4,000 crore over four years and aims for a 10% share, targeting Tirex sales of Rs 300-400 crore. Tirex's revenue rose from Rs 79 crore in FY25 to over Rs 100 crore in FY26. Gulf Oil is also working to increase localisation to 70% from the current 55%, though Chawla acknowledged the company still imports some Chinese components because they are cost-competitive at current scale.
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Gulf Oil's expansion comes as India's EV charger market remains heavily concentrated. Only 534 of 67,657 public chargers (0.7%) are high-capacity units above 121 kW, according to BHEL data cited in the source, meaning most existing chargers are slow AC units unsuitable for buses and trucks. The PM E-Drive scheme, with its Rs 11,900 crore outlay, is the primary government lever driving deployment, but the ministry of heavy industries is also drafting a separate financing scheme for e-bus and e-truck operators, expected in April 2026. Tirex's revenue of Rs 100 crore in FY26 is still a fraction of the estimated Rs 4,000 crore market over the next four years, suggesting room for multiple players if demand scales. Watch for the final contours of the heavy industries ministry's e-bus financing scheme and for whether Tirex can reach its Rs 300-400 crore revenue target.
Source: livemint.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
