Mahindra Charge_iN Hits 50 Stations: First HPCL-Linked Site Goes Live on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Mahindra's Charge_iN ultra-fast charging network has reached 50 live stations and more than 200 charging points across India, the company confirmed on September 24, 2026. The milestone includes Charge_iN's first station built jointly with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), now operational at the HP Auto Care Centre in Sajgaon on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Every Charge_iN station runs exclusively on 180 kW dual-gun DC fast chargers. Mahindra says the current rollout puts it at roughly 20% of its target of 250 stations and about 1,000 charging points by December 2027.

What's New: The First HPCL-Linked Charge_iN Station

The headline development isn't just the round number of 50 stations. It's that the newest one is the first Charge_iN site to come out of Mahindra's March 2026 partnership with HPCL.

That agreement gives Charge_iN access to a retail network of more than 25,000 HPCL fuel outlets, sites that already have road access, power connections, lighting and parking sorted out. The Sajgaon station is the first visible proof that the deal is moving from paperwork to pavement. Mahindra says several more joint HPCL sites are currently in engineering or construction.

Also Read: Mahindra Charge_iN and HPCL Partner to Expand Ultra-Fast EV Charging Ecosystem

Charge_iN's Numbers So Far

Here's how the current rollout stacks up against Mahindra's stated 2027 goal:

Both figures land at almost exactly the same completion rate, which suggests Mahindra isn't changing the format of new stations as it scales, just adding more of the same design.

What Powers Every Charge_iN Station

Unlike most public networks in India, which mix slow AC points with a handful of fast chargers, Charge_iN uses only 180 kW dual-gun DC fast chargers. Each gun can serve one vehicle, so a typical two-gun station can charge two EVs at once.

Mahindra says its XEV 9e, BE 6 Sporteq and XEV 9S can go from 20% to 80% charge in about 20 minutes under standard test conditions. That number is a best-case figure, not a guarantee. Real-world charging time depends on the vehicle's own maximum DC intake, battery temperature, current state of charge and whether the charger's output is being split with another vehicle.

Where the Stations Are, and Why It Matters

Charge_iN stations are deliberately placed on major inter-city highway corridors and paired with wayside amenities like restaurants and cafes, rather than being scattered across city centres. Mahindra's first two stations opened at Hoskote on NH 75 (Bengaluru-Chennai highway) and Murthal on NH 44, about 50 km from Delhi. Sajgaon extends that pattern onto the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

The logic is straightforward: a 20-30 minute fast-charging stop is far easier to plan around if it doubles as a food or restroom break on a long drive, rather than a dead-time detour.

How to Access Charge_iN

Charge_iN isn't limited to Mahindra owners. You can find, book and pay for a session through:

• The Charge_iN by Mahindra app
• Mahindra's own Me4U app, which also aggregates roughly 34,000-35,000 public charging points from other operators across India
• HP eCharge, HPCL's own charging app
• Third-party charging aggregator platforms

That means Charge_iN functions as one high-power layer inside a much larger public charging map, rather than a closed ecosystem.

How Charge_iN Compares to Other Charging Networks

Charge_iN is still small next to India's established charging operators, though it's built differently. Here's how the scale compares, based on each company's most recent public disclosures:

These aren't apples-to-apples networks. HPCL, Tata Power and ChargeZone all run a mix of slower AC and fast DC points across thousands of sites built over several years. Charge_iN is newer, smaller in absolute count, and intentionally narrow: every single station is a high-power DC-only stop built for highway driving, not routine top-ups.

Also Read: Mahindra XEV 9S vs MG Hector Tomahawk EV: Which 7-Seater Electric SUV Should You Buy?

Evfy's Take: Is Charge_iN on Pace for Its 2027 Target?

Mahindra's own math checks out on the surface: 50 of 250 stations and 200 of roughly 1,000 points is a clean 20%, right in line with where a straight-line rollout to December 2027 should be. But the pace needed from here on is steeper than it looks.

Hitting 250 stations and 1,000 points by the end of 2027 means adding roughly 200 more stations and 800 more points in about 15 months, working out to a little over 13 stations and 53 charging points every single month.

An independent EV charging-infrastructure tracker had put Mahindra's network at around 39 stations by the end of June 2026, a figure that comes from unofficial monitoring rather than a Mahindra disclosure, so treat it as directional rather than exact. If that number is roughly right, Charge_iN added only about 11 stations between July and late September, closer to 3-4 stations a month, well under the 13-a-month clip the remaining timeline now demands.

The HPCL partnership is the piece most likely to close that gap. Building at a fuel outlet that already has land, power and road access removes most of the friction that usually slows down new-site approvals. Sajgaon is the proof of concept. Whether Mahindra can now replicate it at HPCL locations several times a month, rather than once every few months, is the real