On the occasion of World EV Day, an EV charger was inaugurated at Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi International Airport

A quart­­­er of a century ago, Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi International Airport came up as the first Radisson hotel in India. On Friday, the property marked another first for the Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) by becoming the first Indian hotel of the company to get an Electric Vehicle charging station. In collaboration with SunFuel, the EV charging station was set up and inaugurated at the property on September 9, World EV Day.

The event marked the beginning of the installation of EV chargers at all of the more than 100 properties of Radisson at over 60 locations across South Asia. “The Group’s vision is to achieve this goal in the next three to six months,” shared Zubin Saxena, Managing Director and VP Operations, South Asia at Radisson Hotel Group in an exclusive conversation with BW Hotelier.

“This is the way to go. The EV chargers are a step to where the future is taking us. Sustainability is becoming a bigger priority for all of us across all verticals of life. At RHG, we want to be the pioneers and leaders in sustainability initiatives. What we have realised is that the hotel customer demand in India is going to increase by way of road trips. We have been noticing the trend of increased drivability to many of our locations. This is, therefore, an obvious and natural step for us to take now,” he explained.

Once the aim of having EV chargers installed at all existing properties is achieved, the Group will ensure that all upcoming properties have such installations from inception.

Saxena also shared that from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there is a Radisson every four hours so he believes that installation of these EV chargers at all RHG properties will go a long way in allowing EV owners to travel long distances by car without having to worry about the availability of charging infrastructure, something that poses to be a big issue for them at present. The EV market in India is still at a very nascent stage, despite some models having been available for years now. However, the systemic push towards more environment-friendly driving alternatives is now leading to the creation of a more robust EV infrastructure and the initiative taken by Radisson is a major step in that direction.

The event was also attended by Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications for Radisson Hotel Group. “As one of the leading hospitality companies, we have a vision to facilitate responsible tourism and travel. We do this with our own sustainability strategy and commitment to Net Zero and by offering sustainable value propositions to our guests such as this brand-new network of EV chargers. We are proud to be playing a leadership role to establish a framework to grow sustainable travel, give back to nature and build a climate-conscious community of travellers,” she said.

Expressing his joy at Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport becoming the first RHG hotel to install an EV charger, Managing Director Nitin Kapur said, “Along with numerous other continuing efforts to minimise carbon emissions at our level, the RHG-SunFuel association is one little step we have taken in the direction of sustainability that will help make the world a cleaner, greener and healthier place.”

Calling its chargers ‘state-of-the-art’, Sudhir Nayak, co-founder, SunFuel Electric said that the design of the chargers has been developed with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (Department of Design) and the technology inside the chargers is powered by Siemens. He mentioned that every Radisson hotel in India will be equipped with one charger each, to begin with. However, as EV adoption increases, four EV chargers will eventually be installed in each hotel to ensure adequate availability.