[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by idoctor

Did a self drive EV rental trip from Bengaluru airport to Madikeri, Coorg. Had hired a Nexon EV Prime. It was my first EV trip ever.

Thanks for sharing. Kudos to you for renting a EV for a vacation. Off-topic question. price for an EV- Was the rental the same as an automatic ICE car or cheaper? Also, did u have to return the car back with a full charge?

I will request you to write a detailed post in the electric car "subforum" about the rental, cost, car condition and more

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by idoctor

Did a self drive EV rental trip from Bengaluru airport to Madikeri, Coorg. Had hired a Nexon EV Prime. It was my first EV trip ever.

Please tell us more about which self drive company is providing EVs for rent in Bangalore, I usually look in Zoom car but do not find any EVs.

[idoctor]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

Thanks for sharing. Kudos to you for renting a EV for a vacation. Off topic question - Was the rental price for a EV same as an automatic ICE car or cheaper? Also, did u have to return the car back with a full charge?

I paid Rs 4665/day for a Prime XZ+ (Top variant), this was after a 15% discount as I had booked for 4 days. I compared that time with ICE rentals, was almost the same for ICE cSUV. But the running cost was much lesser than ICE, so still EV wins.

The condition is to return it at the same SOC as received or else the company charges Rs 7/SOC%. I got the car at 70% and returned it at 55% and the company person was kind enough to waive off the 15% SOC charge.

Thanks for the motivation, will write a thread soon enough!

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

Please tell us more about which self drive company is providing EVs for rent in Bangalore, I usually look in Zoom car but do not find any EVs.

Check out sparkcars.in, it's an EV only self drive rental company.

Mod Note: Please use the EDIT or QUOTE+ (multi-quote) button instead of typing one post after another on the SAME THREAD!

To know how to multi-quote, click here.

[Alive2Drive]

Hi All,

I have just bought an Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV and am really excited to go on a long trip Delhi - Bengaluru.

I know the answer however would like to know if someone has done this in the past and if yes, please let me know the plan and route best suited for an EV.

Any inputs will be highly appreciated.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by Alive2Drive

Hi All,

I have just bought an Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV and am really excited to go on a long trip Delhi - Bengaluru.

I know the answer however would like to know if someone has done this in the past and if yes, please let me know the plan and route best suited for an EV.

Any inputs will be highly appreciated.

That's a long drive, but easily doable. Also with higher range of Ioniq5, the charging stops can be minimal as well. I would recommend Delhi-Mumbai-Bangalore route. It's a bit longer, but offers larger options for fast charging enroute. With Ioniq, you can easily get more than 400Kms on a single charge ,so covering over a 1000kms in a day is not a major problem.

Use plugshare for identifying the reliable chargers enroute and install respective apps.

[mohanphadnis]

Just finished a 2000km journey in my Ioniq 5.
I had got delivery of the vehicle in May but never really did a long journey and refrained from writing anything about the vehicle, as the max I sat in the car before this time was just 4 hours at a time (200kms).

So come Diwali and it was time to go home, Unfortunately the flight tickets for 4 people for Raipur and back was already expensive, and when you have a vehicle which costs so less to drive, I decided to just drive. So we were driving, the passengers were me, my wife and two kids. I had done the same journey in my Kona before and was quite comfortable doing it in a vehicle with way more range.
The plan was as follows :-
Day 1: Leave from Pune in evening and stay in Aurangabad for the night.
Day 2: Leave early from Aurangabad (Ch Sambhaji Nagar) and reach Nagpur for lunch, get it fast charged and reach Bhilai by evening.

For the way back, decided to leave from Bhilai in the morning, and hopefully get to nashik by end of the day.
After a day in Nashik, the last leg was the 200 km journey back to Pune.

Pune-Aurangabad road is a mystery and the time it takes to cover the distance can range from 4 hours to 12 hours depending on traffic. Decided to check traffic when I leave Pune and then decide to take Pune - Sinnar - Aurangabad road or go straight out.

The plan was to charge in Click hotel in Aurangabad which has a 30kW Tata power charger (Tellus), so booked a couple of rooms in the hotel and we were good to go.

The day of journey comes and as expected the click hotel charger was OOS. Well there is the Taj Vivanta charger right next to it, but it would cost Rs.28/unit. Decided to rather try the EV pump charger in CIDCO, as it is cheaper (20/unit).
The road showed hardly any jams and we were off from Pune by 4:30pm. The journey was uneventful and was able to reach aurangabad by 8:45. The efficiency I got was pretty good (7.6km/kWh) and I was in Aurangabad with 60% charge still in the battery. As I reached the EV pump charger, it was completely empty. GREAT!!!! Now this place has two DCFCs both from different manufacturers, so I plug in the first charger, and it gives me pairing error. Next I try the other machine, the handshake goes fine but all it is able to give is 1kW.
Decided there are only so many moments in life, and just went to Vivanta.

Plug in the charger, tap the RFID and the car shows it is charging at 50kW on a 30kW charger!!!! I was on Cloud#9, but next moment it dropped back to 30kW. SIGH!!
Anyway, had dinner, while the car sipped electrons and after 90 minutes, the battery was at 100%, took out the car, checked in at click and slept like a baby.

The journey from Aurangabad - Nagpur is 450 kms using Samruddhi Highway, I was quite confident that I could make this distance in single charge and hence had charged upto 100%. The day starts, I join Samrudhhi and am cruising at 85kmph (decided to see how the efficieny goes before increasing speed later). On this highway the ADAS-2 features come on their own, adaptive cruise control + Lane keep assist meant after 5 hours I was in Nagpur. The efficiency I got was lower than expected though (just 6.7km/kWh) and I reached my relative's place with 6% battery and 25km range left.

Put the car for charge on Jio BP charger at Hotel Orient Tabiah which gave 60kW steady all the way. And before I could finish the lunch, the car sent me a message saying, the charge is already complete (63kWh in 1 hour, which is 6->90%). Got the car and after some local travel was on way to Bhilai. Another journey on roads which were less than perfect (Ioniq 5 took the bad roads with aplomb) was in Bhilai by 8pm (4 hours from nagpur) again at 7.4km/kWh.

On the way out I got a few pointers :-
1. The Michellin pro pilots are amazing tyres, I had kept the tyre pressure slightly lower at 35psi, but the max they went to while driving was 37psi, I think this lower tyre pressure caused me some efficiency on the samrudhhi. There was 0 heating issue in this tyre, I think if filled with Nitrogen, we can avoid this increase as well.
2. I think concrete has higher rolling resistance and hence I got far lower efficiency than on tar.
3. The car is very comfortable, there is so much room in the vehicle's backseat that kids were super comfortable.
4. ADAS is a dream on samrudhhi mahamarg. the car almost drives itself with hardly any inputs, which is basically putting slight pressure on Steering regularly, so that the ADAS will know I have hands on the steering.

On the way back, decided to leave from Bhilai in morning but got the news the night before that the Jio BP at Orient Tabiah is OOS, which meant on reaching Nagpur I had to charge on MSEB's charger whic was giving only 27kW, this meant I had to wait almost 90 minutes in Nagpur till the battery reached 100%(I had reached nagpur with 52% battery remaining). But god MSEB is a cheap CPO, at only Rs.13.25/kWh


With the Jio BP this time could have been reduced to about 45 minutes.
My parents gave me lot of stuff so I was carrying about 70kgs extra luggage back, and rather than coming down 200 mtrs, I would be climbing the same. So decided that I would do a short charge in Buti Bori (thus reducing distance to Aurangabad to 420kms) and then start up at a speed of just 80kmph, did not want to get off the samrudhi at Jalna and then coming on the Aurangabad-Jalna road for 55 kms.

So after the quick 15 minute charge at Buti-Bori which took charge back to 100% (from 95%), we were on the way. I started up at 80kmph, but now I was getting efficiency of about 7.4km/Kwh. After about 150kms we had sped up to 85kmph, in some time 90 and finally just as we were reaching aurangabad, we were cruising at 100kmph. After leaving from Buti Bori at 2pm, we were able to reach Aurangabad by 7:30pm, with a short stop on the highway.


Saw this peculiar sight on Samrudhi, the only real case of traffic violation, but it is a wonder how such people think they would survive stupidity


Again the stop was at Vivanta where a 90 minute charge took the car to 70% from 12%. Left Aurangabad at 9:30pm and started cruising on Mahamrg at 100kmph, but near shirdi, I thought I saw a shape cross the road, and slowed down to take a look, found out it was a black dog and decided to slow down to 90kmph. Upon reaching Nashik had to leave the next day so decided to do a quick charge in Nashik as well.

Went to MSEB sub station to charge, but just as I put the car for charge the charger stopped in 3-4 minutes, at exactly 6:00pm. I have a hunch the employees shut down the charger, so that people would leave and they can go home.



Anyway, decided to go to Chargezone at car mall and was getting 30kW here. took the car to 70% and was in Pune with 30% charge left in the car.
The chargezone auto charge worked like a dream and the charger was also working very well.


I have decided to stay away from the small CPOs now, will stick to the big guys like zeon or Tata power going forward. The money stuck in wallet is not worth the pennies one saves in per unit costs. The car ran fantastically well. This is a proper cruiser.

The final stats for the journey are :- 2100 kms in 37 hours final efficiency came to 6.7km/Kwh.
Charging costs :- Rs. 4299.08
Toll Charges :- 2610
Total cost :- 6910 for a 2100 km journey.


From my early days of driving kona long distance, this has come a long way, I was able to do 900+kms in a day in an EV in India. The charging points are coming up pretty quick and fast now. I have found Tata power/Zeon to be quite reliable as well. I had earlier written that doing long roadtrips in EVs is doable.
With Ioniq 5, they are no different from any other ICE vehicle.

As a car, Ioniq 5 is fantastic. If you have the money, you cannot go wrong with this vehicle. Enough power, lots of space, decent suspension, good GC (never scraped on entire journey) and I had to drive on some pretty atrocious road near Sakoli, as there was an accident on the highway and I had to take unpaved village roads to get around it. Very comfortable vehicle with lots of room to store bibs and bobs.

If two kids can survive on the back seat entire day, one can imagine it is a comfortable back seat .

I cannot really find a fault in this vehicle after 6 months.

[siva61]

Had a chance to drive BYD Atto 3 from Tirupur-Chennai-Tirupur for around 1000kms. Started with 100% at home and reached Vellore with 9%, The suspension was very good even at highway speeds. Acceleration and regen refinement was very good. Enjoyed the drive, even though the seating was not comfortable for my height for more than 5hrs drive. True range for me was even though 360 kms for full charge.

Charging at 360kw charger

Chargezone has an excellent 360kw charger setup with 6 dispensers. Plugged in with 9% SOC, initially it was charging with 83kw charging speed, after 30% SOC it was charging at 49kw. Charged upto 66%. While I was charging there came a Volvo truck and it started charging at 233kw charging speed.

Destination charging

Reached Chennai with 14%. Hotel did not have any type 2 charger and they even did not give me even 16amps socket to charge overnight. Reached late night so did not had time to argue and get 16 amps socket. Next day morning I had a function to attend in Hotel Leela place, there was a type2 charger available and the car was full when I left the hotel at evening. Destination charging is one of the most practically useful infra to be developed in many many hotels in cities and tourist destinations.

Highway charging

Chennai to my home is 500kms and I just stopped 20 minutes for breakfast at Zeon Tindivanam and another 20 minutes for lunch at Zeon Sangagiri. No extra time taken for charging. With highway charging in southern part of India there is no extra timewaste because of Atto 3 charging speed.

Selecting charger

At sangagiri there was Nexon prime charging in 50kw charger (Eventhough prime’s charging speed is 21kw maximum in DC and I was forced to use one of the gun in 60kw dual gun charger. Once I initiated the charge another MG ZS came and plugged in with another gun and we got 30kw for each cars. If Nexon prime would have selected one of the gun in 60kw dual gun I could have charged in 50kw charger and used full charging speed. Anyhow I just needed a small top-up until I finished my lunch.

One interesting fact about the MG ZS guy was he had driven 1,60,000+ kms in just over 2 years. Felt OMG.

Once EV always EV

[Ashdel]

Nothing For or Against EV's in India - but couple of points.

1. EV's are super expensive than normal fossil fuel cars.
2. I strongly believe EV's are at a very premature baby stage in India - in terms of highway long runs. Plus nightmare's with Desi branded EV's are world famous.
3. EV's most probably cannot be anyone only car - it has to be secondary - local city is fine - but as soon as anyone has to travel outstation - the hunt begins.
4. 5-10 years back we used to compare that between Diesel vs Petrol engines - cost diff is around 1-1.5 L - Check now between normal petrol vs EV vs what you save in long run.
5. Getting an EV charger installed in gated societies is a challenge - most of the times - please factor the cost.
6. For mile munchers - EV's may test patience most of the time - for refueling / power / niggles / RSA etc.

In my vast local circle in Delhi - NCR - i have friends and family with more than 10 EV's in their parking lot - most of them have this as their 3/4th car + mostly local runs + extremely detailed planning while doing highway runs.

Lot of BHPians + Youtubers have even done EV's till Leh - just check the level of pre-planning done - most of us will give up patience. Trust me.

[sumannandy]

What are the charging options in Darjeeling and Kalimpong? Plugshare does not show any public charger. Is there any hotel that is offering ev charging through 15A?

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by Ashdel

1. EV's are super expensive than normal fossil fuel cars.

For Nexon the difference between ICE and EV (even Max/LR version) used to be ~30% and after the facelift it has come down to 15% (on road price in Bangalore). How is this super expensive?

Originally Posted by Ashdel

4. 5-10 years back we used to compare that between Diesel vs Petrol engines - cost diff is around 1-1.5 L - Check now between normal petrol vs EV vs what you save in long run.

You have to take into account the per km cost saving as well, not just the price difference.

Price per km saving between Petrol and Diesel has mostly been Rs. 2 to 3, whereas between Petrol and EV is around Rs. 4 to 5, hence their RoI will be same even with a price difference of 2 to 3L. Also unlike Diesel EVs won't have increased maintenance cost.

Hybrids have similar problem, they save less per km than EVs but still cost 2 to 3 L more over non-hybrid.

[sharathkamath04]

With over a year of experience in electric vehicles, I've undertaken various trips, including:

Multiple Bengaluru to Mangaluru journeys, noting the significant increase in available charging stations from five to over twelve within the past year.

Trips from Mangalore to Gokarna and Goa, with charging at RNS Residency Murudeshwar, where we now have access to a JioBP DC charger.

A journey from Bengaluru to Gandikota, where I utilized a Tata Power charger due to the unavailability of charging facilities at the lodge.

Travel from Bengaluru to Madhurai, Rameshwaram, and Thanjavur, during which I encountered several charging issues. However, the situation has improved significantly, with the addition of a DC charger at Rameshwaram and en route to Thanjavur.

Journeys from Bengaluru to Kodai, with multiple charging stations available en route. Additionally, I've explored Coorg, Chickmagaluru, BR Hills, Mysore, and Shivanasamudra.

For those considering purchasing a new car, I recommend visiting https://www.plugshare.com/ to explore the availability of DC chargers. Don't let concerns about hardware driving deter you from making the switch.

[Vernafied]

Originally Posted by siva61

Had a chance to drive BYD Atto 3 from Tirupur-Chennai-Tirupur for around 1000kms.

Besides charging manner folks also needs to learn the parking maaner at ev station. Look at how Nexon ev and ZS ev has been parked. They shouldn't come and complain if traffic cops tows the vehicle . Recently happened in Mumbai where car was towed when it was charging at station

[Fiero]

Originally Posted by oakpr

All in all, a happy tale and big confidence booster when I prepare for next long drive.

Hey. What was the total driving time (minus all stops) for covering the 850 kms, and total units consumed? Average speed will give a good co-relation with range. And are there any 100kwh+ chargers enroute on the highway?

Apologies if I've missed these details.

Originally Posted by mohanphadnis

Just finished a 2000km journey in my Ioniq 5.

Nice. This would give a usable range (between 10% -90 %) of about 390 km, which is not bad at all. However, I am curious - what happens to the range if the average speeds increase to, say, 65+ kmph and speeds of 100-120 are kept where possible? Have you been able to test this out? Some folks have reported 5.6km/kWh on highway drives. That would drop the effective range down to 330km.

Do you recall what the instant consumption figure was @90 kmph, @100 kmph and @120kmph?

[mohanphadnis]

Originally Posted by Fiero

Nice. This would give a usable range (between 10% -90 %) of about 390 km, which is not bad at all. However, I am curious - what happens to the range if the average speeds increase to, say, 65+ kmph and speeds of 100-120 are kept where possible? Have you been able to test this out? Some folks have reported 5.6km/kWh on highway drives. That would drop the effective range down to 330km.

Do you recall what the instant consumption figure was @90 kmph, @100 kmph and @120kmph?

I did not do this, but after 85kmph, the energy drain is primarily air resistance. so the force from air resistance would be twice at 120kmph of what it would be at 85kmph. So I think the efficiency at 120kmph would drop to ~4km/kWh, thus the effective range would be 280kms. I have found 90-95kmph to be the sweet spot, anything higher and the bleed is too high.

[Fiero]

Originally Posted by siva61

Chennai to my home is 500kms and I just stopped 20 minutes for breakfast at Zeon Tindivanam and another 20 minutes for lunch at Zeon Sangagiri. No extra time taken for charging. With highway charging in southern part of India there is no extra timewaste because of Atto 3 charging speed.

Nice. Exactly what I am waiting to hear from more people, that they drove normally and did not go out of their way for charging. Charging simply happened in the background.