Relux Electric, an India-based electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure firm, has secured ₹2.5 billion (~$29.93 million) in project financing from a group of real estate and infrastructure investors. The company plans to use the funds to expand its hyper charging station network across the highways in South India.

Relux Electric plans to install 20 new hyper EV charging stations in the next eight months. The company is in the process of procuring identified land parcels on busy highways like NH 44, NH 45, and NH 556. Each charging station is expected to occupy an area of 1 to 1.5 acres with a minimum capacity of 1 MW each.

The hyper charging stations can allow up to ten small to medium-sized cars, ten high-end cars, two buses, and one truck to charge simultaneously.

The stations would guarantee a ten-minute charging time for three-wheelers and 18 minutes for four-wheelers.

The company operates over 100 charging stations across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh, catering to private vehicles.

Karthikeyan Santharam, Managing Director and CEO, said, “We are also committed to developing our own team for R&D and operations & maintenance. As an Original Design Equipment company, we procure charging equipment based on our own designs. These factors make it possible for us to keep the downtime to a bare minimum of a few hours and ensure higher utilization of assets – up to 40%, which is double the industry average.”

The project funding route chosen by the company is based on revenue sharing. The company also plans to rapidly expand its charging station footprint by exploring various other funding options.

The company plans to float a new vertical for fleet operators and owners of commercial vehicles to set up AC charging stations at their respective locations.

According to Santharam, the new vertical will focus on signing up builders, residential and commercial complexes, fleet operators, and travel agencies to use the company’s dedicated charging hubs. The company will not club personal and commercial vehicles in the same location to avoid impacting the space owners’ reputation and operational difficulties.

EV sales reached a record 486,669 units in the first quarter of 2024, increasing by 40% year-over-year. The market consistently exceeded the 100,000-unit threshold each month during the quarter, and March witnessed the highest-ever monthly EV sales figure of 204,337 units.

According to Mercom Capital’s Q1 2024 Funding and M&A Report for Storage and Grid, in the first quarter of 2024, corporate funding in the smart grid sector amounted to $686 million across 14 deals.