[sheelRP]

Great trip on Kona! I am also planning to take my Kona on Ahmedabad to Bangalore route may be some time this year. Enjoying my Kona and hope you continue to enjoy your Kona as well.

[PixelPenguin]

Hi All,

As part of my first road trip in EV, I am planning to charge at various hotels during overnight stay. What are some things I have to check regarding their charging facilities before finalising a booking? For example, I am planning to stay at a hotel in Hubli(Naveen Lakeside). The plugshare app does not mention a charging facility at the hotel but when I contacted them they mentioned that they can facilitate charging at their premises and are quoting per 1 hour 50rs plus taxes. Is there anything I should check with them before booking the hotel?

[rknair]

We went on my first outstation trip on my new BYD Atto3 from Hyderabad to Mahabaleshwar. The round trip was 1217 km. Though I was fairly confident of Atto3 range of >400km, I did not take much risk and charged whenever we stopped for food. The charging infrastructure in Hyd - Poona highway (NH 65) is fairly good. The number of chargers in Mahabaleswar - Panchgani area was also much more than my expectation. The only stretch where I did not find many was the 150 km between Bhigwan in NH65 and Mahabaleswar. I did not encounter any issue in finding or charging in public chargers. These are the charging details for my trip.


Minor issues I encountered were:
1. When I reached SVS Tyres Sastapur, there was a power outage. Anyway we had stopped for breakfast there. In 10 mins the power was back so I went ahead and had successful charge.


2. Shivkrupa Cafe was advertised as a 60 KW charger, but I could get a max power of 34 kW only. It was extremely hot at that time, so I am guessing that the vehicle would have reduced the charge rate for thermal protection. So it took around 1 hour 20 mins for full charge. I was expecting around 1 hour.


3. Hote Shree Veg Bhadalwadi is an excellent stop for EV owners. They have 2 Statiq and 2 ChargeZone points so 4 vehicles can be charged at a time. But eventhough plugshare advertised the Statiq one as a 60 kW charger I was getting only around 27 kW. I tried moving around the ports (thats why you see multiple entries for this charging station in my spreadsheet attached) but still it was giving only 27 kW.
4. IOCL COCO, Kamakole was the fastest charger I encountered during this trip. They have a 50 kW charger and I got 44.5 kW on average. There is also a restaurant Food Pyramid next to it. We did not have food there, since I just topped up for 15 mins there just to be doubly sure of the reaching safe home.
5. I did not charge in my hotel, but there was a 30 kW fast charger just 1 km away from my hotel, so I charged for an hour there before going to sleep.

[DarthVeda]

Tata Power has hiked up prices for charging, previously, it was 19 per unit excluding GST, now it is 21, 25, 28 without GST. That's a steep hike and almost puts it at 4 rupees per kilometer bracket.

[evolvo]

Originally Posted by rknair

2. Shivkrupa Cafe was advertised as a 60 KW charger, but I could get a max power of 34 kW only. It was extremely hot at that time, so I am guessing that the vehicle would have reduced the charge rate for thermal protection.
3. Hote Shree Veg Bhadalwadi is an excellent stop for EV owners. They have 2 Statiq and 2 ChargeZone points so 4 vehicles can be charged at a time. But eventhough plugshare advertised the Statiq one as a 60 kW charger I was getting only around 27 kW. I tried moving around the ports (thats why you see multiple entries for this charging station in my spreadsheet attached) but still it was giving only 27 kW.
4. IOCL COCO, Kamakole was the fastest charger I encountered during this trip. They have a 50 kW charger and I got 44.5 kW on average. There is also a restaurant Food Pyramid next to it. We did not have food there, since I just topped up for 15 mins there just to be doubly sure of the reaching safe home.

The slower charge speed could be due to one of two reasons:
- Charging speeds taper off towards the end. So if you’re charging from 60 to 100%, speeds would be lower than peak. That said, BYD has a better charging curve, and only tapers towards the very end.
- Some charging stations deliver full power when other chargers are idle. If other chargers are occupied by other cars, the peak power delivery might be reduced to evenly distribute to other chargers too.

Btw, congrats on your car. Great choice. We got a red Atto recently in hyd too, and it’s been great!

[rknair]

Originally Posted by evolvo

The slower charge speed could be due to one of two reasons:
- Charging speeds taper off towards the end. So if you’re charging from 60 to 100%, speeds would be lower than peak. That said, BYD has a better charging curve, and only tapers towards the very end.

I don't think it is due to the charging tapering. My experience is that in BYD the charging rate remains same till around 98-99% and then there is a slight drop. What I have read is that in Nexon EV, the rate starts tapering from around 80%.

Originally Posted by evolvo

- Some charging stations deliver full power when other chargers are idle. If other chargers are occupied by other cars, the peak power delivery might be reduced to evenly distribute to other chargers too.

This was also not the case here since mine was the only one at that time.

Originally Posted by evolvo

We got a red Atto recently in hyd too, and it’s been great!

Congrats to you too. Red is also a lovely colour. We were confused between Red and Blue. Finally decided to go for Blue since it had a shorter wait time. I have read your review in the other thread. Thanks for sharing that. We should connect and set up a community for the early adopters of Atto3 especially since we are located in the same city. I have some quibbles about BYD since they haven't yet provided the data plan and Android Auto support both of which they promised in Q1.

[DarthVeda]

BPCL has been a charging installation spree with numerous charging stations popping up all over Karnataka. We have chargers on highways, which were previously untouched by other CPO.
BPCL has setup chargers at:
1. Bengaluru -> Kanakapura -> Malavalli -> Chamarajanagara
2. Udupi -> Thirthahalli -> Shivamogga -> Chitradurga -> Ballari
3. Dharwad -> Hubbali -> Ballari
4. Bengaluru -> Mysuru -> Madikeri
5. Few other tier 2 towns/cities

Good times ahead.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

BPCL has been a charging installation spree with numerous charging stations popping up all over Karnataka. We have chargers on highways, which were previously untouched by other CPO.
BPCL has setup chargers at:
1. Bengaluru -> Kanakapura -> Malavalli -> Chamarajanagara
2. Udupi -> Thirthahalli -> Shivamogga -> Chitradurga -> Ballari
3. Dharwad -> Hubbali -> Ballari
4. Bengaluru -> Mysuru -> Madikeri
5. Few other tier 2 towns/cities

Good times ahead.

Yes, not just these locations, BPCL is setting up chargers across the country and the pace of their installation is far higher than other private players. Most of these chargers are not functional yet, but should be up and running within the next few months.

These are 30KW fast chargers and priced at 22Rs/KW. Also there is a 10% discount for MG EVs.

Sharing web link to access BPCL chargers.
https://edrive.hellobpcl.in/ionage/chargers

[HappyRider]

Happy that BPCL is setting up all these chargers. However, they should not make them look online till they are commissioned and tested. I had bad experience at Chitradurga.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offic...ml#post5521958

[Shresth_EV]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

BPCL has been a charging installation spree with numerous charging stations popping up all over Karnataka.

We got many new chargers from BPCL over here in UP as well.

Almost all highways radiating from Lucknow now have at least one BPCL DCFC

Lucknow - Ayodhya (BPCL Mawai, 70km from LKO, 50km from Ayodhya)

Lucknow - Prayagraj (BPCL Nikhil Fuel, 150km from LKO, 50km from Prayagraj)

Kanpur - Prayagraj (BPCL Malwan)

As @speedmiester noted, it seems to be a pan India effort.

Altough I faced a tough situation at BPCL Nikhil Fuel on a LKO-PRYJ-LKO trip. The initial plan was for my parents to pick me from college hostel on 6th in PRYJ after a brief charging halt at the said DCFC which other people had already checked into previously on plugshare.

The car was able to charge successfully from 39% to 100% but upon removing the gun and starting, it flashed the HV Critical Error. Despite sincere help from @darthveda over reddit DMs, we were unable to start the car and it had to be RSA'd back to LKO. The car got all errors cleared and returned back from SC the very next day (since it was already noon when the error occured and almost evening by the time we reached back)

Been working fine since then and in fact, we took it on another excursion on sunday (9th) which I shall detail in another post. All happened within span of 3 days. The SC itself concured with @darthveda later on 7th, that it might be possible that the charger hardware may not be upto the mark - today we got a call from the pump folks too - an apology of sorts (they helped a lot while we were stuck there and gave a cell number to call in case we needed to verify charger status before headin out) - that the charger had some earthing issue apparently, which was diagnosed by the engineers from the charger manufacturer after our car got error and towed on 6th.

Lets see how it pans out. I must also thank @darthveda again for his help over reddit DMs

Before starting charging


After charging ended


General word of advice as received from @darthveda and previous teambhp posts if you're a Tata EV owner finding themselves at a BPCL DCFC with HV Critical error :

1. Don't charge to 100% (this was my fault as I should've warned them not to charge fully on DCFC not only from time tradeoff but also from perspective of public charger etiquette)

2. Follow the 3 step start - Start button w/o brake pressed to go into ACC, Start button w/o brake again to go into IGN mode and finally Start button WITH brake pedal to start car

3. If you do get error, try to remove, wait 5-10min and reattach the -ve terminal of aux battery under the hood.

4. If possible, get a OBD2 Scanner which works with bluetooth to clear errors yourself in emergency situations.

[Shresth_EV]

Went to scout a DCFC run by BPCL yesterday, which also had a nice Dhaba in the Pump premises itself. 70km one way from home. You ask why? Because dad is posted in ayodhya and this DCFC is a very strategic one at 70km from our house and dad’s current rented house in ayodhya is 50km from this DCFC. By charging once here, we could make the rest of the journey and back home (50+120) on a single charge. As it stands, the charger came online a few weeks ago and what better opportunity to check it out?

Figo 1.5 was due for service so had to drop it off at service Station. The said SC is on the same route as the highway between LKO-Ayodhya, so we dropped it on the way on, and picked up on the way back

The Aim :
Not only would it be a proof of concept to undertake the full trip in future it would also let me verify the charger location and reliability, and update the same on plugshare — it is after all, a community driven initiative. I hope my sunday shennaigans prove useful for other prospective EV users on the road (As it happened, I met a tiago owner from LKO itself while navigating through the BPCL Charging portal at the DCFC). The new Tiago EV came along with family on board, so I yielded the charger since they were on an actual long trip.

I could only put the charger for 10min while we had dessert at the dhaba (Ice cream), after our lunch and their Tiago was done. They had got their Tiago only a fortnight ago.

Trip legs :

1. Home—SC : 5.2km/96% (Range 236km)
2. SC—BPCL Mawai : 73.3km/66% (Range 175km)
3. DCFC session : 66%->76% (New Range 190km)
4. BPCL—home (went to spencer’s, and picked up Figo from SC) : 97.2km/32% (Range 92km)

Total Trip : 175.7km

Total Range : 257km [ 175 (driven) + 92 (remaining) - 15 (added at DCFC) ]

Predicted Range in morning (100%) : 263km

Range Deviation : -2.34%

Avg Consumption : 136Wh/km (133Wh/km on the onward trip; 136Wh/km on the total trip)

Driving mix : 10km city traffic total — SC to home and home to SC, SC is on the LKO-ayodhya hwy itself; Spencers is on same road between home and SC.

Speed mix : 70kmph-80kmph on cruise control for 90% of the highway; 30-40kmph in city no cruise (obviously)

Regen Setting : regen3 in city & regen1 on hwy.

Charge Added : 3.3kWh (10min)

Trip costs : ₹305 = ₹85 (DCFC) + ₹220 (Toll) Since we fully charged at home using solar, we don’t pay a penny even for lighting, let alone charging at home

Total Trip Time : ~8h (including errands, eating lunch and visiting SC in morning and eve to drop and pick up the Figo)

[rknair]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

Happy that BPCL is setting up all these chargers. However, they should not make them look online till they are commissioned and tested. I had bad experience at Chitradurga

Did they show as online in the BPCL Edrive website or only in Plugshare? As of now they are showing as online in Edrive website. I am planning to travel through Chitrdurga tomorrow and planning to use these as my backup chargers.

[HappyRider]

They showed as online on Ionage app. This is the app supposed to be used for BPCL chargers.

See if you can find the phone numbers of these BPCL petrol bunks and call them. That is the only way to get clear position.

[HappyRider]

Originally Posted by Shresth_EV

1. Don't charge to 100% (this was my fault as I should've warned them not to charge fully on DCFC not only from time tradeoff but also from perspective of public charger etiquette)

Not only that. From many threads here and also on other sources, it is advisable not to charge to 100% on DC chargers as most of the HV critical errors popped up after charging on DC for 100%. Seems hardware used by some of the CPOs are causing issues when charged to 100%. I just don't take chances. I charge only upto higher 80s and move on. Only when the charger is absolutely free with no one waiting, I charge up to 95%.

[varkey]

Originally Posted by Shresth_EV

4. If possible, get a OBD2 Scanner which works with bluetooth to clear errors yourself in emergency situations.

Since I too had an interesting experience which left me stranded, this comment intrigued me. Do you have any recommendation on the specific OBD2 scanner which might help, also on how we'd go about doing a reset? I was under the impression that this had to be done with some specific Tata equipment.

Any fellow EV owners have a hands on experience in using a general OBD scanner for this?