[yashg]

I am contemplating switching to an EV. Have booked a ZS EV test drive for later this week. At first my thought was also that with increasing number of EVs we might have to wait at charging stations. Just out of curiosity I downloaded the PlugShare app. I was astonished to see the number of chargers available around my area. I think with numbers of EVs increasing we will see following
1. Number of EV charger stations will increase
2. Number of sockets at at existing stations will also increase. Most of these centre’s are setup by private companies, right now they have installed only one because there aren’t as many EVs. They can always increase number of points when more and more cars start gathering and customers start complaining about wait times.
3. Hotels, malls etc will start installing charging points in fact advertise charging facilities to attract EV owners. If I am going on a vacation and a hotel is providing fast charging it will be an important factor in making a decision.

A post above mentioned 20-30 EVs showing up at a hotel at once. If we really get to a stage where 30 EVs show up at a single hotel, rest assured the charging infra would have reached to a matching level. India is a land of entrepreneurs.

With time EVs with 300+ KM range will become more common and with that EVs will have to be charged less often on a long trip. Combine that with the increased number of charging locations and increased awareness about charging etiquette, people won’t need to charge their cars to 100% every time. They can charge to 80% and move on.

EVs are the future.

[Shresth_EV]

My first encounter with an ICEd charger

Went to shop at a mall yesterday and thought about trying the fast charging for the first time (had 72%SoC) on our Nexon EV, but alas, it was ICEd by a Vento from the car wash facility in the same basement parking (can tell from the squeaky clean tyres and paint, and the swiftness with which he materialised before me)



Manager of the car wash promptly refused to move (played dumb with me about the Vento and suggested to use the “other charger” which was AC 7.5kW)

In no mood to waste time and energy, I just charged at the AC charger. Clearly, some form of supervision is required. This is the only DCFC in the parking, and Two other AC Type 2 units.

Quite the nuisance if one wants a quick full charge. I could manage out 5kWh from 1h30min from the charger (₹90)

[tharian]

We are planning to drive down to Mysore from Bangalore in my sisters MG ZS the next weekend. I am sure the car will last one way with no worries of running out of juice. The worry is if it will do the return trip as well knowing how bad traffic can get between Bangalore and Mysore during weekends.

When I was checking for charging stations, found a Zeon charging station located at the Mysore mall which is close to the place we are staying. Since we have never used any of these charging stations, I wanted to know beforehand apart from installing the app, as to how does the process work, or is there someone from the company posted there to assist?

[salbin]

Originally Posted by tharian

We are planning to drive down to Mysore from Bangalore in my sisters MG ZS the next weekend. I am sure the car will last one way with no worries of running out of juice. The worry is if it will do the return trip as well knowing how bad traffic can get between Bangalore and Mysore during weekends.

When I was checking for charging stations, found a Zeon charging station located at the Mysore mall which is close to the place we are staying. Since we have never used any of these charging stations, I wanted to know beforehand apart from installing the app, as to how does the process work, or is there someone from the company posted there to assist?

Zeon is better in terms of user experience and better FC device compared to other FCs. You need to install Zeon app and load wallet with some amount. To initiate charging, scan the barcode on the device and start charging, follow instructions in app/screen - fairly straightforward process. If you get their RFID tag, it is even simple - just plug the gun and tap the RFID! There are some YouTube videos in case you need to refer. Their customer care is also good.
Apart from Zeon Mysore, you have options at Channapatna - hotel Indradhanush/KFC and hotel Kadamba at NICE road exit.

[Chrome6Boy]

We went on a drive to Hyderabad from Chennai and back for a 2 day sightseeing trip. It was a great overall experience with some hiccups.

Let me preface this by saying I don't enjoy driving in a manner to extract the maximum range, I like accelerating quickly and hate keeping an eye on consumption.

We left at 5 AM from Chennai ECR, so we had to traverse the entire city from South to North before hitting the Chennai - Kolkata highway. I was given very good advice by members speedmiester and Rada (Transition to Volthead | Ownership Review of LightFury | My White MG ZS EV Exclusive) about highway charging which I tried to follow.

We were extra conservative with the charging stops for a few reasons. Mainly we wanted to ensure no range anxiety or hyper milling as this was a family trip which was also aimed at testing and understanding our 2022 MG ZS EV Exclusive's capabilities. We used the Android Plugshare app for reliable reviews and easy location finding.

We planned to stop and charge 3 times on our way to Hyderabad and 3 times back to Chennai. First stop was at Kritunga Restaurant which was 164 kms away. This station was occupied when we reached and had to wait an hour before we got to our turn. The person who was charging before me mentioned he couldn't charge on this station the previous night as there were power issues. In fact there was a power cut even when he was charging.



The car showed a remaining charge close to 180 kms and so we did a quick charge for ten minutes and left with a remaining range of 240 kms. However as I pulled out I noticed the range shown was different when the car was running and different when it was charging. The new remaining range was still 210 so we decided to keep going. As we were driving to Ravi Priya Mall.

This is when range anxiety set it, the difference between our destination's distance and the range shown keeps decreasing! It was finally 3% remaining in our battery with the remaining range being shown as "---" when we reached the charging station. We had to resort to driving without using the air conditioner in 30 degree weather driving at around 65 Kmph in ECO mode. Believe me, the experience was less than ideal.

Luckily for us the station was working and unoccupied. It was a 50 kW Zeon fast charger and we could charge it 95% in close to an hour and set off towards our next destination. Vivera Hotel which was 245 kms away. We had a range of about 300 kms so it was a relaxed trip there.



The Tata charger was not operational but there was a Lion charger available right next to it and charged at 24 kW. We took our time and filled it to a range of 150 kms and left for Hyderabad which was only 91 kms.

Next couple of days was sightseeing in Hyderabad which was a very pretty city. We took cabs / autos everywhere as we didn't want to drive in Old City traffic.

Salar Jung museum was really amazing!

Beautiful lake.

Impressive Golconda Fort.

Qutb Hahi tombs.

Chow Mahalla palace

Charminar

Our hotel had a 24 kW Joule Point charger so we charged to 90% before we left.

We left 7:30 AM from our hotel in Hyderabad back home and we tried to do the same thing as the trip a couple of days before but in reverse. The Vivera and the Ravi Priya stops went according to plan. We tried to keep 60 kms extra range before leaving. Our last planned stop in Kritunga was a little scary because the charger was non operational. The next charger at ICOL was also not working.

However we easily managed to reach Comfort Inn Tada. This was listed as a Relux charging station but did not show up on their app. Once we reached the place the security guard informed us that the hotel had decided to end their relationship with Relux and were charging privately. It was a 60kWh charger and was super fast. They charged us Rs. 25 including GST which was similar to all other providers.

We charged it to 50% and left for home and comfortably reached. Below is the accumulated trip info.



We plugged in the car in the 16 A charger at home and gave it time to slowly climb to 100%, it did feel good to be home.

Some conclusions drawn from this drive

• EV charging infrastructure is rapidly expanding

• With good planning and some good luck decent distances can be covered on major national highways.

• Total cost at Rs 25 per kW was about Rs. 4975.

• The acceleration, quietness and lack of vibration makes for a very comfortable ride.

• EVs on the highway are extremely rare so despite driving over the holiday weekend only one charger was occupied.

• Our hotel front desk did not even know there was an EV charger in their premises! We only found out because of Plugshare. This shows how rare EVs are!

• This will hopefully be one of many more road trips in the ZS EV.

Thanks for reading.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by Chrome6Boy

• This will hopefully be one of many more road trips in the ZS EV.

Thank you for sharing such a good travelogue. It's because of owners like you, that us ICE owners get to know more about the EVs and their real world usage.

Can you also share what was the total distance that you covered in these trips ? Is it 1352.6 as shown in the image ? Thanks!

[Chrome6Boy]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Thank you for sharing such a good travelogue. It's because of owners like you, that us ICE owners get to know more about the EVs and their real world usage.

Can you also share what was the total distance that you covered in these trips ? Is it 1352.6 as shown in the image ? Thanks!

Yes, it was 1,352.6, I might have forgotten to reset it before the trip but did it within 10 kms of leaving home.

We didn't drive inside Hyderabad as most of our destinations were in Old Hyderbad which like any old city is not pleasant in terms of driving so we took cabs / autos which was more convenient.

[mah45]

Originally Posted by Chrome6Boy

Yes, it was 1,352.6, I might have forgotten to reset it before the trip but did it within 10 kms of leaving home.

We didn't drive inside Hyderabad as most of our destinations were in Old Hyderbad which like any old city is not pleasant in terms of driving so we took cabs / autos which was more convenient.

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Just curious, how long did it take from Chennai to Hyderabad including the pit stops for charging the EV and yourselves.
I guess you did both journeys during the day, how are the road conditions

[Chrome6Boy]

Originally Posted by mah45

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Just curious, how long did it take from Chennai to Hyderabad including the pit stops for charging the EV and yourselves.
I guess you did both journeys during the day, how are the road conditions

Since this was our first EV road trip and with the family we took it easy. While going to Hyderabad, our first stop unfortunately took more than an hour of waiting because of power issues and also that we needed to wait for another person to finish. However with our current experience we would have just driven on to the next charger. Hindsight is always 20-20

All the remaining chargers took between a half hour and an hour depending on what state of charge we were shooting for. All the chargers except the last one in Tada were also in a restaurant / toilet complex so we used this stops to eat and rest.

While going it took us a total of 16 hours and while coming back it took us 13.5. Our driving time itself was close to 12 hours.

Yes, we drove during the day. The roads were fantastic, only big potholes were near Chennai on the Grand Northern Trunk road, but once you crossed Gummidipoondi all the way until Hyderabad was a breeze. Big roads with minimal traffic.

[Car Fan]

Drove from Gurgaon to Karnal (Haryana) and back yesterday in my Hyundai Kona, total 348 km. Consumption was 11.4 kWh/100 km which translates into 344 km on a single charge if my maths is correct (Kona usable battery is 39.2 kWh).

I recharged at the SG Karnal Statiq DC charger - 21 units at Rs 20/unit, took 59 minutes to charge. It's a 60 kW charger and I used the CCS/SAE connector. The experience was smooth as it usually is with Statiq.

I drove to Karnal on an empty highway (Western Peripheral Expressway) for the first half with occasional heater use, then NH44 to Karnal which is a busier highway. Ambient temperature was 10-13 degrees.

On the way back I used the heater occasionally for two-thirds of the journey and kept it on all the time for the last third. Highway was quite busy.

This is an excellent result IMO under these conditions. Did not go above 90 km/h, drove in Eco mode. The Kona was very poised on the highway, drove smoothly and the instant torque was excellent for quick acceleration, even with Eco mode on which limits the acceleration.

[anjan_c2007]

A well illustrated and described blog on this topic by veteran auto journalist, Mr Bob Rupani, in Overdrive. He has suggested methodologies for the layout of proposed EV charging stations and the privately owned, supportive infrastructure to complement these incl several ways for EV passengers to keep them all engaged during the sometimes prolonged, charging spell.

Yes indeed, all he has described deserve to be there and so also mini theatres, motels, bed and breakfast hotels and so on. With the present range per charge of upto 300 kms plus, EV's shall have to halt during long trips.

And whether one likes it or not, this will become a norm in the near future, till either newer batteries with longer ranges or else quicker charging devices are invented.

The blog:-

https://www.overdrive.in/news-cars-a...vehicle-world/

[shyampsunder]

Did a trip to Mysore from Bangalore in our new MG ZS EV. While most do a round trip without charging, I decided to push the car hard and not drive it sedately.

I booked a hotel with a dedicated Zeon AC charger since I didn't want to heavily use DC charging on a brand-new car. The car topped up from 35% to 85% in around 2.5 hours costing around Rs 600.

We drove around Mysore and decided to plug in overnight. Found some ICE vehicles parked by Valet in the EV charging zone. The hotel staff moved them for us.

Overnight charged to 100% which cost us around Rs 300.

Drove to nearby places around Mysore which ate into our range. We were at 73% when we were about to leave Mysore which should've been more than enough to reach Bangalore but since it was our first trip, played it extra safe by putting in a 15 min DC charging stop at Jio BP at Nexus mall. this bumped our battery up to 91%.

Reached home with 36% battery left.

[sumannandy]

I will be travelling to Thiruvarur, from Salem and then back to Chennai. There are a couple of Relux chargers around, but all of them seem to be Star made confirmed by the support. The support also told us that there are occasional issues with Nexon. Without relux chargers, I would have to stay at Trichy and then drive to Thiruvarur and then to Ulundurai, which is almost 250 kms or so. Although MAX can support, would like to know if anybody has experience with Relux chargers and MAX.

I have also charged in 43kw Zeon AC chargers. The dashboard or the app does not show time to full charge, but it gets charged at 7.2 kwh.

[Hawk4]

Originally Posted by Car Fan

Drove from Gurgaon to Karnal (Haryana) and back yesterday in my Hyundai Kona, total 348 km. Consumption was 11.4 kWh/100 km which translates into 344 km on a single charge if my maths is correct (Kona usable battery is 39.2 kWh).

Yes, Kona is very efficient and even when compared to MG it is 10% more efficient. During my recent drive of 300km, I got 9.2km/kw which translates to 350km range with 85-95km speed, ac always on with 4 people on board.

I recharged at the SG Karnal Statiq DC charger - 21 units at Rs 20/unit, took 59 minutes to charge. It's a 60 kW charger and I used the CCS/SAE connector. The experience was smooth as it usually is with Statiq.

Did you check what is the speed of charging with 60kw charger? So far i've charged only at 30 kw charger and the charging speed is 28kw maximum. At this speed Kona took 30 minutes for 11.5 units. So with 60kw it should take only 30-35minutes for 20 units.

[DarthVeda]

Last week, I travelled to Udupi in my Nexon EV Prime, left Bengaluru at 1730 Thursday evening, stopped at Relux charging station at Shantigrama toll, charged till 95% while having early dinner. Left the station at 20:40, and reached our destination with 4% remaining and at 0200. This was an attempt to see if we can do this route with only one stop and the last 40km was done at 45kph as well.

The return journey, we decided to go through Mangaluru -> Sakleshpura -> Hassana -> Bengaluru, had no hassle at charging at Tata Charger near KSRTC bus stop, one can eat at Ideals cafe nearby while this is happening. Due to road work, I couldn't continue to hassana and took at detour to Madikeri. When I reached Madikeri and the hotel to charge, the tata power app service was offline
Wasted an hour waiting for it to come back, and used an 16A plug to slow charge while we had dinner.
The worst experience was yet to come, I decided to charge at BPCL charger at Kushalanagara, left with 22% from Madikeri and reached the charger with 17%. It took few tries to get the charging gun to lock but it happened.
The BPCL app is the worst that I have come across, the main app, which is around 85MB, opens an web page for you to choose and start charging! what is the point of the app if it opens a webpage.
They also deduce 50rs standard for every charge session and have priced it very high, around 29.5 rs per unit. Given that it is a 25kw charger the rates are atrocious.


Don't use BPCL unless you have no other means.