Bangalore - Sringeri - Bangalore in ZS EV

    For a new EV owner, or even for someone considering to buy an EV, long or highway drives are the main fear drivers. I wanted to face this fear and test my trust in the EV infrastructure. Because, darr kea age jeet hai. So I took my less than a week old EV into the wooded & serene parts of Karanataka, to a place I always enjoy visiting – Sringeri. This post is to help build confidence for those with similar jitters. With a little planning you can comfortably win over the fear and enjoy a worryfree & enjoyable drive in your EV. 

Route:

Consumption details

    The first stretch until Hotel sky bird was pure fun drive. Without much EV highway driving experience, I was weaving through vehicles with regen at 3, constantly braking & enjoying the adrenaline rush from instant pickup. I think that was a little reckless driving which was just draining the battery at 5 or 5.5 km/kWh. Then while waiting at the FC, I received a lot of feedback and tips from the MG EV owners WhatsApp group (an awesome EV support system which deserves separate post). Based on the feedback I made a couple of minor modifications to my driving style:

·        Keeping regen at 1 on long, straight Highway stretches. Because the loss from acceleration is higher on such stretches than the gain from regen.

·        Speeds above 80 is okay but did it with a gradual pickup keeping the % power under 50

Though it initially felt like uncle style driving, it paid off well. I got 6.5 to 7 km/kWh through the ghat sections and that can be seen in the efficiency column as well. I did a 244 km stretch comfortably with 24% soc still remaining.

The last stretch from Paakashala to home was back to reckless driving. It was late in the night, I was super tired and slipped into the mode of enjoying reckless driving at the cost of efficiency. Afterall I was driving to the comfort of home.

 

Planning

As I said earlier, with a little planning you can overcome the range fear and have a worry-free drive. Here is how I planned, which may not be a big deal for an experienced EV owner, but is a good starting point for a newbie.

Starting from any part of Bangalore, there is abundance of chargers until Hassan. But beyond Hassan when heading towards Sringeri, the Tata FC at Gateway hotel Chickamagalur is a critical dependency. Gateway hotel to Sringeri & back is a good 200+ kms. Considering the hilly drives, I expected a stop here atleast on one way would be must. Hence, I chose to stop at Shantigrama during my onward journey instead of the more popular Yadiyur chargers. That way, if the Tata FC at Gateway hotel was out or unavailable, I could head to Sringeri and stop at it on the way back. Though the FC at Gateway hotel was available during both legs of my journey.

On the return journey though, the Tata FC had some hiccups likely due to voltage fluctuations. It turned off automatically a couple of times. I had to spend a total of 1.5 hrs + here. I was tempted to leave with enough SOC to reach Yediyur and charge at Paakashala or Hotel Mayura. But the risk of availability far too great. Hassan to Bangalore is a busy route on Sunday evenings. If I get hit up by another EV charging at one of these stations then I would get stuck with too long a wait. Hence, I decided to rather spend the extra time at Gateway hotel and charge enough to reach home if need be. I was checking charger statuses at both Paakashala & Hotel Mayura  when I was 2 hours away and both chargers were continually getting used. The risk of availability did prove to be real. As luck would have it, the charger just got freed up as I was pulling into the parking lot of Paakashala. The 50kw charger was super amazing. In 40 minutes, by the time we finished our dinner, my car too got fed stomach full.

So key takeaways on planning:

1.      Plan for charging stops where chargers are reliable and preferable where multiple chargers are within short distance away

2.      For a 300 km+ trip, account for 1.5 to 2 additional hours for commute than an ICE car. This helps not have high pressure on time loss.

 The experience of driving a ZS EV is a whole lot of fun and worth a separate post.

Foodie tip: Along the Sringer-Chikmagalur route, near Balehonnur there are two great places for awesome coffee : Bhadra coffee stop & Khandya Cafe.