Public EV Charging Networks in India Compared — Tata Power EZ Charge, Ather, Statiq, ChargeZone, BPCL, Shell Recharge

Tata Power EZ Charge is the largest public EV charging network in India by charger count as of 2026, with presence across all twenty-eight states and most major highways. The network is a mix of DC fast chargers ranging from 25 kW to 120 kW and AC chargers at 7.4 kW, installed at Tata Power retail forecourts, Tata Motors dealerships, Croma stores, malls and select petrol pumps under partnership arrangements.

The EZ Charge app is among the cleanest in the Indian market — live charger status, real-time availability, CCS2 and Type 2 filtering, navigation handoff to Google Maps and in-app RFID activation. Payment is typically by UPI or wallet and failed-transaction refunds are faster than most competitors, usually inside 48 hours. Pricing is straightforward — a per-kWh rate plus a small session start fee, with occasional discounted slots for off-peak windows in some cities.

For a first-time public-charging user who wants the least amount of friction, Tata Power EZ Charge is the app to install before any other. Where it is weakest is in deeper Tier 3 towns and on some state highways where other networks have better density.

Ather Grid started as the charging network for Ather electric scooters and has grown into a multi-brand network with thousands of charging points across fifty-plus Indian cities. The footprint is heavily urban and Southern-India weighted, with the deepest coverage in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune and Mumbai. Many Ather Grid points are AC-only at 3.3 kW or 7.2 kW suitable for two-wheelers and top-up use by cars.

For four-wheeler owners, Ather Grid is useful as a backup city option rather than a highway trip planner. The newer Ather Grid 2.0 deployments include DC fast chargers with CCS2 ports suitable for a Tata Nexon EV or MG ZS EV, but these sites are still a minority of the footprint. The app is polished, payment is reliable via UPI, and pricing is in the same 18-22 rupee per kWh band for DC.

If you live in Bengaluru, Chennai or Hyderabad, Ather Grid gives you a dense urban backup for those evenings when your home charger is occupied or offline. For a road trip across North India, it will not be your primary network. Pair it with Tata Power EZ Charge for the best of both worlds.

Statiq has built one of the most visible National Highway charging networks in India, with dense CCS2 DC fast charger coverage along NH-48 Delhi-Mumbai, NH-44 Delhi-Bengaluru via Hyderabad, NH-16 Kolkata-Chennai and several Golden Quadrilateral legs. Their strategy has been highway-first, city-second, which makes them complementary to Tata Power.

The Statiq app is functional rather than polished — live status exists but can lag real availability by a few minutes, and the navigation handoff is less smooth. Payment is via UPI, wallets or RFID. Statiq pricing tends to be a little lower than Tata Power per kWh but with occasional surge pricing in peak evening windows that is worth being aware of before you arrive.

Reliability is the known weak point. User reports and EV forum threads from 2025 and 2026 consistently show a non-trivial percentage of Statiq chargers either offline, throttled to half-speed, or stuck in post-session lock states that require customer-care intervention. Keep the helpline number saved — it actually answers — and always have a backup charger on your route plan.

For pure highway runs along the big four corridors, Statiq will often be the closest available option. Install the app, but do not make it your only option.

ChargeZone is strongest in Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Western India region, with particular density in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, Pune and along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor. The company built its early footprint on fleet and commercial contracts and retains strong coverage at transport yards, industrial parks and select highway dhabas.

The ChargeZone app is straightforward, pricing is competitive in the 17-20 rupee per kWh band for DC, and the chargers tend to be higher-power 60 kW and 120 kW installations rather than slower 25 kW stations. If you are driving Mumbai to Ahmedabad on NH-48 or Pune to Nashik, ChargeZone is very likely to be the fastest option you encounter.

Outside the Western and Central Indian belt, coverage thins rapidly. Delhi-NCR presence is moderate, Southern India is thin, and the Northeast is effectively absent. Treat ChargeZone as a regional specialist — essential if you drive the Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Pune-Nashik circuit regularly, optional elsewhere.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited has partnered with multiple EV charging CPOs to install DC fast chargers at its petrol pumps across India, branding the service as BPCL e-drive. Indian Oil IOC has a similar rollout with its Indian Oil e-station brand, and HPCL has tie-ups with private CPOs. Between them the three public-sector fuel retailers now have a meaningful charging footprint at familiar highway pump locations.

The strength is obvious — petrol pumps sit exactly where you want chargers on a highway, they have toilets and tea stalls, and staff is present to call for help when a charger fails. The weakness is equally obvious — the charger hardware is operated by various CPOs of varying quality, uptime is inconsistent, and the app experience varies depending on which CPO is behind a specific pump.

Practical advice. Treat BPCL, Indian Oil and HPCL charger locations as welcome fallback options rather than trip primaries. Arriving at a BPCL e-drive pump with a fast charger listed green on the app but discovering it is actually under maintenance is not a rare event in 2026 — have a live backup within 20 km on your route plan.

Shell Recharge is the smallest of the six major networks by charger count but delivers among the most consistent user experiences. Shell has installed high-power DC fast chargers at select Shell petrol pumps across highways connecting Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, with pricing on the higher side of the Indian market at 22-26 rupees per kWh.

The Shell Recharge app is clean, chargers are 120 kW or higher where installed, uptime is good, and the accompanying Shell cafe and washroom facilities are typically the best in the Indian charging market. For an EV owner who does not mind paying two or three rupees more per kWh for a smoother twenty-five-minute break, Shell Recharge is worth installing.

Coverage is the limitation. You will not plan a trip around Shell Recharge because the sites are too sparse. You will thank the network when one happens to be on your route.

For drivers who use real-world range planning techniques rather than trusting ARAI numbers, Shell Recharge stops often align well with the 150-200 km usable-range checkpoint on a long run.

No Indian EV owner needs all six apps on their phone. Three is the sweet spot for most drivers, chosen by region and use pattern. The following recommendations are based on 2026 footprint maps and user-report uptime, not marketing claims.

Whichever three you pick, set up UPI autopay or wallet balance in each app before your first long trip. The last thing you want at 11 PM on NH-44 is to discover your default UPI app is failing at a Statiq charger and the Tata Power backup is 40 km away.

The quoted per-kWh rate is only one input into what a charging session actually costs. Idle fees after the session ends, surge pricing during peak windows, and minimum session charges at some networks can inflate the bill meaningfully. Subscriptions exist at Tata Power EZ Charge and Shell Recharge that reduce per-kWh rates in exchange for a monthly fee, but only make sense above 200-250 kWh of public charging per month.

For a representative 40 kWh fill of a Tata Nexon EV from 20 percent to 80 percent at a 50 kW DC fast charger, expect a typical total of 500-600 rupees inclusive of energy and session fees at a Tata Power or ChargeZone site, and 550-700 rupees at a Shell Recharge site. Statiq and Ather Grid tend to sit in the lower half of that range.

Public charging per kilometre cost is roughly 2.5 to 3.5 rupees for a Tata Nexon EV on DC fast, versus around 1 to 1.5 rupees on a home AC wall-box using residential electricity. Home charging remains the cost-optimal default; public charging is a trip tool. The detailed comparison is in our companion guide on home versus public EV charging costs in India.

Indian EVs sold after 2020 overwhelmingly use CCS2 as the DC fast charging standard and Type 2 for AC charging. The Tata Nexon EV, Tata Tiago EV, MG ZS EV, MG Comet EV, Mahindra XUV400, Hyundai Kona Electric, BYD Atto 3 and Kia EV6 all follow this standard. Older cars and some imports still use CHAdeMO, which is increasingly rare at new public sites.

Power rating matters too. A Tata Nexon EV LR accepts up to 50 kW on DC fast; plugging it into a 120 kW Shell or ChargeZone charger does not charge it faster than its onboard acceptance limit. Do not assume the highest-power charger is the quickest — match your car's acceptance to the charger, and pay attention to whether the site has multiple ports being shared by other cars, which can throttle the power delivered to each.

AC charging onboard limits are equally model-dependent. The Tata Nexon EV uses a 7.2 kW onboard AC charger; the MG ZS EV can accept 11 kW from a compatible three-phase site. Know your car's onboard limits — they are in the owner's manual and on the brochure spec sheet, and reading the spec sheet properly is covered in detail in our EV spec sheet guide for India.