Man Charges Mahindra XUV400 EV At Apartment: RWA Imposes 25,000 Fine For Charging From 'Domestic Meter'

While the government is promoting EV manufacturers and asking people to adopt EVs, there are several issues that still remain unaddressed or unresolved. One of them is EV charging. People living in independent homes don’t have a problem, but we have come across several cases where apartment owners are asked not to charge their EVs. Here, we have one such case from Noida’s Amrapali Princely Estate, where a Mahindra EV owner was imposed with a ₹25,000 fine for charging from his domestic meter.

The owner of the Mahindra XUV400 EV posted the issue on his X profile. He posted images of his Mahindra XUV400 while it was charging. The frustrated EV owner shared the images with the caption: “@MHI_GoI @MinistryofPower @UPPCLLKO How do you expect EV adoption to go up in light of the fact that RWAs are penalising residents for charging their EVs from their domestic meter & forcing them to use distant public chargers at higher costs? Please help @PankajSinghBJP sir.”

The owner also posted a copy of the notice served by the RWA, in which he is asked to pay a fine of ₹25,000 for charging the EV. The society in question here is AmrapaliPrincely Estate located in Sector 76 of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. In the comment section, he claims that the newly elected members of the association have executed an agreement with vendors of their choice and started pushing all EV owners to use those terminals instead of their own connections. This way, owners will have to pay more every time they want to recharge their vehicle.

This is actually not a feasible option, as it defeats the purpose of an EV being pocket-friendly. The owner also mentions that he used to charge the vehicle at his parking spot, but someone cut the wire, and the community chargers are also not working.

The owner mentions that the RWA has asked him to pay the fine within the next 3 days, which is again unacceptable, especially without providing a long-term solution to the problem. It looks like the wheels of the EV have been clamped by the security at the society after they were instructed.

In the images posted by the owner, we can see that he is not using a common plug in the society. He is, in fact, using a long wire from his apartment that is connected to his domestic meter to power the vehicle’s charger.

The notice also asks the owner not to repeat the mistake. However, the notice doesn’t clearly mention the fault of the owner. He is using electricity from his domestic meter, which he has paid for.

This is not the first time we have come across an incident like this. We have seen several cases where electric scooter owners were forced to take their EV to their apartment to charge it after the apartment denied permission for a charging point.

While there is a recent Bombay High Court ruling that ordered housing societies to facilitate the installation of charging stations and asked the state government to finalize rules allowing EV charging stations in cooperative housing societies, these incidents continue to happen. The court clearly ruled that societies cannot deny members the right to install charging points.

We really hope authorities in Uttar Pradesh look into this matter seriously and take necessary action against the management that took this action. In fact, such incidents will only push people away from buying electric vehicles, and we believe that is not something the government is aiming for at the moment.