[INJAXN]

Voted for 600+ kms. Any thing less than that means I cannot travel between Pune and Indore. Though I do not travel that frequent, but if I would be getting an EV as primary car, then this would be in mind for sure.

Though it is not asked, but if its for a 2 wheeler, then 150+ would be good enough for me.
May be we should add 2 wheelers in the voting list.

[S2K]

Voted for 400KMs.
My requirement is around 300KM. But considering that the battery performance might fall over time, a 20-30% reduction in a 400KMs range still gets me around 300KM range.

[deep_behera]

Voted for 600kms. Actually, to be on the safer side I would be looking at at least a range of 800kms. This is given that my current ride (VW Passat B8) easily gives me a highway range of more than 1000kms. I do a lot of highway drives and I mostly begin my trip with a full tank. I do 500kms to 700kms in a day with few short duration breaks.
I will only move to an EV when I am sure that I do not need to have pitstops just for the sake of charging. Charging can happen while I am resting or after reaching the destination.

[Thermodynamics]

600 would be good, because of two reasons

1. That’s a typical day’s range for sedate long distance driving.
2. For shorter/medium commutes, I don’t have to prepare the car every time.

Say there is an emergency and I need to travel immediately, today I can simply fuel up in 5 minutes and move. Imagine the same situation with an EV and the car isn’t fully charged. So IMO, some room is needed in terms of battery capacity to cater to real world uncertainties. It’s the same reason why we pick mobile phones with larger batteries, we need room to adapt to next charging opportunity.

[AjayJoshuaN]

An EV should have an optional battery power bank to double the range. So for me I think 500 km should be the normal range, while with the power bank, the car should be able to do 1000 km.

[sentra26]

The longest I have gone without a break in long road trips is around 500 kms. With friends who can drive it's longer. I also visit small towns where the infra is not very well developed for EVs. With reva e2o, I would not even think of taking it on the highway. Things change say with the Nexon.

So, as someone who drives long distances periodically, the biggest issues for me are the

- Charging time
- Charging station availability

The Nexon (correct me if I am wrong) takes a few hours to charge when a fast charge station is not available. A car that we use on road trips needs to have decent range and minimum charging time. If I drive 500 kms and I need to wait 8 hrs for it to charge again, that sort of would make me real anxious. Plus, I'd have to haggle around with the hotels to see if they'd allow a charge etc. I really do hope charging stations come up all around and the charging time is reduced.

[apachelongbow]

Until I get a EV which can mantain an average speed of 90/100 kmph on highways, give me a real world range of 500 kms (at the above average speed) and enable me to quick recharge (within 30 mins) to add atleast 200 kms (at the above mentioned average speeds), it makes no sense to replace a diesel car with an electric.
The big drawback with any EV is that range decreases drastically with increase in speed and payload, unlike IC vehicles. There is no point in taking an EV from say Mumbai to Goa pottering along at 70/80kmph trying to preserve charge until the next "forced 2/3 hour halt" to recharge.

[anandhsub]

A 500km range with an one hour 200km recharge is where I can consider an EV to be my primary/only car. As a secondary car I can compromise on range but not on charging speeds. I would only consider an electric car if it were possible for me to live with it without having to charge at home.

[pkk077]

I think the poll should also discuss the car buying time frame. For anyone buying today, an EV will be a second/city car only. For a city car, I would say even a 100-120 Kms real world range is sufficient as long as the car itself can be had for under 8-10L. For ex., the Celerio AT can be had for 5-6L on road. Now add cost of say 20KWH hour battery pack and subtract the cost of ICE, gearbox and assorted stuff and if such a car can be had for less than 8L on road, it can be a serious value proposition.

[adisag]

I drive an e2o (the same colour as the one pictured in the picture on the opening post, and even the background/locality seems eerily similar to my place of work; to add to that, my name is also Aditya - same as the OP).

We purchased it pre-loved during the lockdown, primarily to potter about on 10-12 km urban runs, but the sheer ease of driving and practically free cost to run, means it has fast replaced our 2015 Jazz Diesel (which in its own right is already super economical as far as running costs go) as our primary runabout.

My place of work is 40 km each way, approx 20 km of highway (albeit urban stretch of NH8, but my timings allow me to get generally free flowing traffic at ~ 60-70kmph). I do have a charger both at work as well as at home, but the claimed range of 100 km/charge is sufficient for me to drive to work and back without a charge as long as I don't need to take a detour. The fact that I can just plugin at both ends of my commute means I always start with a full battery, and this means I never face range anxiety unless I'm heading out of town (for which a car like the e2o isn't really suited anyways). I have actually done 165 km in a single day in the e2o.

Voted for 200km is adequate, but this is based on having access to a second (fossil fuel driven?) vehicle for the highway runs. Without that, I'd probably have to vote for 600km plus.

Currently we do ~ 2000 km/month on the e2o and the Jazz gets to stretch its legs maybe once a week, for urban runs and a monthly highway trip thats about 800 km round trip (so about a 1000km/month). Have seriously been contemplating replacing both the e2o and the Jazz with a Nexon EV, but have grudgingly accepted that this may not be suitable to us given our regular highway runs.

[Nav-i-gator]

As of today, at least 500+ km range in real world would do. Agreed, 90% + times, we don't need more than 200km for our in city travels. But having a single car garage and not being comfortable with rental cars, extra range is important to me whenever I would go for long drives.
Mostly I drive to hills, HP and Uttarakhand. Most of the places I go, do not have proper parking. At my relative's place, for example, no parking , I have to park in a small and congested parking area some 100 metre away from home and then walk up the narrow hill road. And then, we go to even more remote place (native village and other relatives who live in remote Uttarakhand villages)

Absolutely no charging facilities there, and unlikely to come in near future either.

[TrackDay]

Voted for 300 km.

I feel that is sufficient, because with the existing infrastructure in India, that is how much far I will take the car. Even if there is a 600+ range vehicle, I wont feel confident taking such a vehicle so far from home due to lack of charging infrastructure. Also all journeys above 300 km cannot be estimated within a certain range. Sometime I would take a deviation depending on my time to see some local attraction like a waterfall or a monument. Having a fixed range then means limiting my options. Hence a journey above 300 km for me is with an ICE car.

[roy_libran]

Voted 300 real range.
Reasons:
- Overall Cost
- Vehicle Weight
- Heat dissipation concerns

[extreme_torque]

I think a more pertinent question is charge times and the number of places I can charge even though I selected 500 kms in the poll.

For example - would I buy an EV with 400 kms which charges super fast vs one with 500 kms but charges slowly and is solely reliant on a third party charging company? I know I would take 400 kms any which day given more than 90% of the commutes arent 400 kms in total.

Tesla recognised this right at the outset and made sure people had enough places to recharge and did not depend on a third party company to install electric chargers either and made sure their cars charged fast and they could do that because they are fully vertically integrated like another fruit company.

[Hayek]

Nice thread. I think the key words here are “Real
World Range”. And that varies a lot from
City to City and depending on your driving style. When I look at the mileage that I have got on my cars vs others on Team BHP from places like NCR, Hyderabad and Pune, I get about 20% less mileage. So a vehicle with a typical real world range of 400 km, would give me 320 km. Which leaves enough of a buffer to make it to Nashik or Mahabaleshwar comfortably from
Bombay, and to manage a week’s driving without the need to recharge in Bombay (where range may be even lower). Hence voted for 400 km. Of course, for a second car which is used exclusively in town, even the current Nexon EV (with a 200 odd km real world range) would do. But I guess there is no incentive to be an early adapter in a technology that is likely to improve by leaps and bounds in the next 4 years - hence did not consider an EV for my recent car purchase.