[Chrome6Boy]

Thanks for the detailed write up. We've just booked the MG ZS and you've given me a lot of confidence to take it on road trips. Looks like Kerala, TN and South Karnataka are becoming really EV friendly!

The one scary part is as the number of EVs rise, the lines for the highway fast chargers will become unbelievable. I hope charging infrastructure keeps up with EV sales.

When people see what you've spent on your journey as opposed to your Endeavour the Kona makes so much sense!

Kudos to the hotels who were nice enough to help you out with charging your car.

[Raghu M]

That's a great trip. Very well planned. I would avoid highway driving at all costs in an EV. They look to be best suited for city runs. Hard fact but that's the reality.

[navrddy]

Excellent Write up.
Lets Come to reality.
You were able to charge because, charging stations are empty and not many EV vehicles to charge.Consider a situation where we have lot of EV vehicles waiting to charge and everyone wanted to charge to 100% (analogous to filling up fuel full tank). Situation would have not been good at charging stations.

I,am not convinced about practicality of EV's in our country, even if more charging stations do come up.
Also consider a resort / hotel where 20-30 EV owners turn up for charging socket. Not practical.

Fossil fuel is best solution we have currently, until Fuel cells or Hydrogen combustion catches up.
EV is good for charging at home and going to office in a city.

[Lalitha Venkat]

In a typical driving routine, most of us stop over for two major meals and 2-3 coffee/ bio breaks. If the charging points are available around those places and time for a sufficient charge is less than 20 mns, taking out the EV for a high way spin may not be a bad idea. But I would still use the money saved by using the EV with in the city to fill up diesel for the ICE vehicle to take it outstations just to remove the anxiety build up and the thrill of driving a torquey car on the high ways. Most of us are already stressed at work and take these breaks for unwinding. It does not really make any sense to micro plan for fuel related hassles and get stressed. Using a EV in the city is a no brainer now and that's where TML has taken the lead through their Nexon EV.

[ADI7YAK]

Originally Posted by navrddy

Excellent Write up.
Lets Come to reality.

EV is good for charging at home and going to office in a city.

Umm, no. That's just because there's only 1 charging point at most locations in India so far. Once infrastructure is put up, driving an inefficient 3/4 cylinder internal combustion car will make zero sense.

Speaking of personal experience, I would say even 4 charging piles per location would be future proof for good 5-7 years. Not to forget setting up charging station is significantly less expensive and easier to install than setting up a fuel station.

Here's picture of Tesla's superb infrastructure. Each location has at least 3 piles and the largest has about 24 piles.



Here's what their Europe infrastructure looks like. This includes destination chargers (the one you'd find at hotels) and superchargers (superfast ones) and not to forget each supercharger location can charge at least 5 cars.



Here's one that charges 12 cars simultaneously. One car takes about 40 to 50 minutes, if one decides to charge upto 100%.

[Lalitha Venkat]

Originally Posted by Chrome6Boy

Thanks for the detailed write up.The one scary part is as the number of EVs rise, the lines for the highway fast chargers will become unbelievable. I hope charging infrastructure keeps up with EV sales.
Kudos to the hotels who were nice enough to help you out with charging your car.

I feel that existing hotels/ QSR on high ways, can add an EV charging facility as an additional service in order to expand revenues. They can forecast demand over period of three months and keep adding 2-3 ports. While, currently people who use the EV are very limited, its going to be the order of the day, given the cost conscious Indians. Even petrol bunks could expand into this segment acquiring adjacent land and having solar panels for electricity. I am sure in the next 5 years market will be 50% EV sales in the PV segment. Quality rest rooms is again a big market with a lot of Indians hitting the road for travel. I am sure many of us would not think twice to pay INR 50/ per person to access these facilities if they are maintained like those we find in good hotels. Hygiene is big business in the post Covid world.

[maddy42]

Amazing writeup and you did sound like a Tester for electric travel through south india. Your stop by the cops at the kerala border and the curiousness on the feature says a lot about electric vehicle interest in our country.

The current 200 km range is more than enough for city drives and office commutes.
A 400-500 km range is more than enough for long distance driving.

Trickle charger is enough for a majority of resorts or homes. The fast charger is needed for hotels, bunks situated on the highways. I am sure people wont mind paying for the power they consume.

Lastly india is a land where private enterprises are more proactive in setting facilities up when nothing exists. Our bunks, hotels on the highways are usually privately owned and its an enterprising business person who decided on putting money where his mouth is and dedicating infrastructure for a service.
Similarly charging infrastructure will come up when adoption increases.

Lastly MG ZS EV has a waiting period at the moment.

Maddy

[GeeTee TSI]

I believe EVs are not at their efficient best while doing sustained speeds and this is compounded by the fact that there is no gearing to aid cruising. Wonder how is the experience in an EV at a steady 100kph with respect to the rate of discharge and also NVH. Does it get drained at a faster rate even while cruising on flat terrain?

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by MADMAX111

As of now EV appear good only for city use.

That depends on the EV you buy. If its a Verito E, then Yes. Something like a Kona, MG ZS or the Nexon Electric, you're looking at nothing less than 200km between charges, more than enough for a highway run. Rs. 7000 saved on one road trip, thats no small amount! You could feed some of that into your emi, if you wish. Fit a solar grid on your roof and the cost to charge your EV at home is nil. Heck, even if you need to pay your power provider, its a lot cheaper than filling gas.

Battery swaps are a good idea but when you have EV's pushing well above 200km's on a charge, why even bother with the complications of swapping the battery.

From what I am reading here, even though we are not EV ready yet in terms of infrastructure, it does look like whatever is currently available (thats public chargers), you are never too far away from a fast charger. There aren't that many EV's on the road to overwhelm the system, yet.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by MADMAX111

Reading the experiences above, realised no EV for me till Battery swap facility available widely or Tesla type superchargers available in India. As of now EV appear good only for city use.
My 2 cents

Battery swap is neither possible nor desirable for 4 wheelers. The battery is really large and spread all across the bottom of the vehicle. It is not like a tiny 12V battery. It weights around 300kg and is not easy to remove. Even if were easy, you wouldn't want to risk changing your well maintained battery with little wear for an unknown one. What if the one you swap with has 20% wear on it?
Regarding only city use, that is incorrect. I do frequent out of town trips and there are no issues whatsoever. There are hundreds, actually thousands of fast chargers across the country. Currently, being based in Delhi, I can easily go to Bombay, Goa, Kerala, Chandigarh, Shimla, Nainital, Amritsar. To any reasonable location.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by Lobogris

Battery swap is neither possible nor desirable for 4 wheelers. The battery is really large and spread all across the bottom of the vehicle. It is not like a tiny 12V battery. It weights around 300kg and is not easy to remove. Even if were easy, you wouldn't want to risk changing your well maintained battery with little wear for an unknown one. What if the one you swap with has 20% wear on it?
Regarding only city use, that is incorrect. I do frequent out of town trips and there are no issues whatsoever. There are hundreds, actually thousands of fast chargers across the country. Currently, being based in Delhi, I can easily go to Bombay, Goa, Kerala, Chandigarh, Shimla, Nainital, Amritsar. To any reasonable location.

Battery charging is a experiment which was not successful and you see the many automakers preferring to go the fast charger route instead of a facility to swap batteries.

Tesla is one of the major examples and so is the VWs. It maybe feasible for the scooter market, but soon visits to the chiropactor will start if you keep lugging a battery pack to and from your apartment.

Maddy

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

I believe EVs are not at their efficient best while doing sustained speeds and this is compounded by the fact that there is no gearing to aid cruising. Wonder how is the experience in an EV at a steady 100kph with respect to the rate of discharge and also NVH. Does it get drained at a faster rate even while cruising on flat terrain?

Actually EVs are super efficient at a sustained smooth speed. I get over 400kms on highway runs at around 90kmph.

[Abhijoy]

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

I believe EVs are not at their efficient best while doing sustained speeds and this is compounded by the fact that there is no gearing to aid cruising. Wonder how is the experience in an EV at a steady 100kph with respect to the rate of discharge and also NVH. Does it get drained at a faster rate even while cruising on flat terrain?

Actually they are the most efficient at sustained speeds. At a speed of around 90 to 100 kmph, ZS EV delivers close to 320kms as per my experience. More can be extracted at lower speed but then that is not how I would like to drive the car

[Indian2003]

How are electric cars going to work in a huge country like India? I was looking at a charging map for last year and there were over 79 million people to one charging station. There wont be that much electric cars per charging station but there should be a few thousands at least.

India had about 1800 stations in 2021. Norway with 5 million people and 400,000 EVs had about 3250 superchargers and still there have been fist fights and long lines at the stations during holiday seasons. There are 18,000 charging points.
There were 106 cars per fast charger in 2020. The red are super chargers.


Here is a list of the number of people for every charging station.

Pakistan 200.813.818

India 79.650.109

Kenya 50.950.879

Egypt 49.687.871

Argentina 44.688.864

Uganda 44.270.563

Brasil 26.358.494

Russia 10.283.194

South-Africa 9.566.404

Morocco 9.047.951

Ukraine 7.334.869

Colombia 7.066.383

Taiwan 4.738.818

China 4.066.224

Malaysia 1.335.102

[hemj]

There seems to be an assumption that the number of EVs on the road are definitely going to increase, but the number of charging points are going to remain the same.

Most of the people here are worried about the one delay the person here had with that unlucky brainwashed fellow. This person had one issue out of the 10 different places he used for charging. That is an above average experience in this country of ours.

The people at malls and restaurants are probably salivating at the prospect of lots of EVs in their parking lots where they can just attach an outlet and charge a premium by the hour.

The only worry needs to be that the govt has enough grey matter to increase the power generation in accordance with the increased requirements of the populace. I'll leave you all to judge that.

Happy tripping fellow Bhpian. Every trip you take and post here clears the anxiety for a different person who would be using that route