Achieved 5000 km mark on my MG ZS EV during a 1000 km long road trip

Driving an electric car up the ghats is such a pleasurable experience. There is no lag and overtakes are dealt with efficiently.

BHPian speedmiester recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Another 1000+ km trip and completing 5000 km

Back from another 1000+ km long drive over the weekend. Also, the Lightfury completed 5000 km during this trip.

I was in Mysore on Friday for personal work that didn’t materialise and my weekend suddenly was free. So planned a last-minute trip to the coast and included temple visits for my Parents.

Started off with a full charge and left Mysore at 4:30 AM and reached our hotel in Udupi at 11 AM which included a breakfast stop of 30 mins. That’s a distance of 307Kms with an average speed of 51km/h. SOC was down to 26% when we reached Udupi.

The hotel I stayed in has a DC fast charger within the premises. This helped quite a bit. By the time we freshened up and had lunch, the car was charged to 98%, this was sufficient for our afternoon drive which included temple visits at Murudeshwara, Idagunji and Kollur, this was a round trip of 274Kms. This was completed in about 7hrs drive time including a 35mins idling time with AC while we waited for the rain to subside. SOC was 27% by the time we reached the hotel for an overnight stay.

Charged the car fully in the morning for the return journey back to Mysore. Opted to drive through Charmadi ghat. This was largely on 2 lane roads with some bad patches thrown in and some monstrous potholes near Belthangady. The ghat was beautiful with multiple waterfalls and lush greenery all around, this made the drive a pleasure. My Mother loved watching the rain and fog through the sunroof as we drove through the ghats (paisa vasool for the sunroof).

Driving an EV up the ghats is such a pleasurable experience. There is no lag and overtakes are dealt with efficiently with a finer input on the throttle. This helps in clearing slow-moving heavy vehicles as soon as a gap opens up. Though the Energy consumption was higher during the climb up, it was well within the numbers that I had anticipated. For the climb up the ghat, the range dropped from 280kms to 198Kms for 41Kms, this is with AC and wipers at full speed due to heavy rains. We stopped for lunch at Hassan and charged for about 25mins in Hassan while we had our lunch. Reached Mysore after a total distance of 339Kms with a drive time of around 7hrs. Average speed for this leg of the journey was 48kms, SOC stood at 16%.

As part of the World EV day, Jio BP was offering Fast charging at 1Re/KWH, so opted to charge at their new fast charger in Mysore. Charged the ZS from 12% to 91% in an hour’s time and left for Bangalore. SOC stood at 54% when I reached Bangalore. That added another 150Kms added to the weekend drive totalling 1071Kms over the weekend. Also, the odo crossed the 5000kms mark on the way to Bangalore. This has come up in 44 days of owning the Lightfury.

Final stats

• Distance: 1071kms
• Driving time: 22 hrs
• Avg speed: 48KMPH
• Avg consumption: 7.4Km/KWH

Charging costs

For the entire distance, I drove just like I drive an ICE car. AC was on for 90% of the time. Since there was heavy rain, Wipers and headlamps were on for more than 7hours of the total drive time. I did not have any range anxiety as I had planned the charging stops well in advance with backup plans. All charging was done during our rest stops, so it didn’t affect the overall time taken for the trip.

Unlike my earlier drive to Hyderabad, this trip included a mix of Four Lane National Highways, Two lane National Highways, 2 Lane State highways, narrow roads, potholes and broken roads. This included elevation changes from a high of 1200M to a sea level of 0M. In spite of all this, Lightfury performed flawlessly and was a pleasure to drive.

Signing off with a pic of the Lightfury at Maravanthe Beach.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.