Trip report : 1650 Kms across 3 states in EV

         A voucher from Club Mahindra & the pictures of floating cottages at their Ashtamudi resort motivated enough to book a couple of nights stay there. It was not until 3 months later & a week before the trip that I looked up where Ashtamudi was and how far a drive it was. However, thanks to the MG owners whatsapp group & plugshare app, I was able to plan a drive in my EV with confidence. The most important & impactful tip was to leave Bangalore by 4AM, which reduced the overall commute time and enabled to drive through the traffic clogged Kerala roads early in the evening when I still had energy left. This was my first long trip in nearly 2 months, so motivation was plenty to leave that early in the morning.

In brief :

Places visited: Ashtamudi, Tiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Bangalore

Charging stops: Rasipuram, Vadipatti, Rajapalyam, Ashtamudi, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Vadipatti, Rasipuram, Krishnagiri

Total distance: 1650kms     |  Cost of charging: ₹ 6500     |   Toll cost: ₹2000

 

Charging at Marshal E Tech, Kanyakumari

Leg 1 | 700 kms | 3 stops

        We started from Yeshwanthpur by 4:30 AM and made the first stop at Zeon Rasipuram by 8:30AM with 30% SoC left. The 50kW charger was free and so was the restaurant. Charging was as seemless as the delcisiousness of Idli & Pongal at A2B. By the time we savoured our breakfast & finished the filter coffee it was close to an hour and car was at 99%. The next stop was at Zeon 50kW again at Hotel Temple City, Vadipatti. We reached there at 11:40 with 29% SoC left. It got a little uneasy when we rolled in to see another MG charging and a Volvo XC40 waiting. But the unease was quickly resolved when the MG owner said he was done & moved out, and the Volvo owner said he only had to travel 10kms but had to charge in full for future travel. So agreed to let us charge first and that he would wait until we are done. Thanks to Nallasivam for presenting the idea to ask the Volvo owner. We had just eaten breakfast, so spent the 40 minutes of charging time having a 'EV ownership experience' chat with the Volvo owner over lime soda. We rolled out with 90% SoC and headed to Relux at AK Dynasty in Rajapalyam. This stretch was an awesome drive with clear flat road & great view of surrounding mountains throughout the way. Reached AK Dynasty with 54% SoC left, no hiccups with starting charge. Was able to get full 30kW speed, however the restuarant was a fast food chain which we dint prefer for lunch. Thankfully, the restaurant folks were kind enough to let us hang out inside the AC restaurant while charging so that we dont get baked in the 38 degree heat outside. We thanked them with a salad purchase & headed towards Tenkasi where  we stopped for a heavy lunch of rice & sambar on plaintain leaf. The time gained until Tenkasi made up for the next stretch after entering Kerala as it was mostly single lane road and moving but slow traffic. However, it started to rain lightly as we were clibming up the ghat making it a beautiful drive. W finally reached Club Mahindra Ashtamudi after a long drive at around 8:30PM, plugged in the car at their EV buggy charging wall socket, that they kindly provided, and we hit the bed to recharge ourselves for next day.

Leg 2 | 460 kms | 1 stop

        After a lazing & relaxing stay at the resort, it was time to head back home but not without a little deviation. We started from Club Mahindra Ashtamudi early, at 7AM, with 92% SoC and reached Tiruvananthapuram with enough SoC to skip charging there. We finished darshana of Ananthapadhmanabha, had a scumptous breakfast of puttu before heading towards Madurai for an overnight stay. The drive from Tiruvananthapuram to Bangalore was going to be a long one, so we thought of breaking it with an overnight stay at Madurai. However, when we were somewhere close to Nagercoil the road signs tempted us to make a short deviation to Kanyakumari. The Relux charger at Kanyakumari encouraged us to make the unplanned deviation. While at the Relux 30kW charging station we saw they had a private 7kW AC charger too. We took advantage of it to top up from 80% SoC & balance the cells while we made a trip to Vivekananda rock & Bhagavati Temple. Thanks to the balanced SoC, we headed from Kanyakumari and made a non stop drive to Madurai with 16% SoC left and in time for dinner. We stayed overnight and charged up at the 7kW Zeon AC charger at JC Residency in Madurai.

 

Charging at 50kW DC charger at A2B Rasipuram

Leg 3 | 500 kms | 3 stops

        When in Madurai, who can miss visiting & walking in the grand temple. Ofcourse we too did that and started the journey back home at around 9:30AM. The 7kW AC charger had only delivered ~3kW and so the overnight charging had only taken us to 74% by morning. But we started regardless and stopped at the 50kW Zeon charger at Hotel Temple City in Vadipatti. This time though there were no other EVs, lucky us. The breakfast combo was so delicious & filling that we had to counter it with two filter coffees to ensure we dont sleep on the wheel. Started from Vadipatti with 94% SoC and reached Rasipuram in no time, thanks to the clear, wide, traffic-free road. Who would eat within 2 hours of a heavy breakfast? But we wanted to be in AC, so we entered the restuarant and were trying to play around & kill time with one glass of butter milk. The waiter at A2B understood what we were doing and showed us to a set of seating where there was no service. He said we could sit there as long as we wished without blocking tables during the peak hours that was just starting. We charged up from 18% to 74% in 35 minutes and rolled out. Next stop was at Krishnagiri and hour & half later. We reached Krishnagiri with 21% SoC left and charged up to 54% on the 50kW charger, while filling ourselves with a late-light lunch. Heading home from Krishnagiri, we got to enjoy the weekday peak hour traffic of Bangalore and reached home in about 3 hours with 14% SoC left.

Overall a wonderful, stress-free & anxiety-free trip. Thanks to the 50kW Zeon chargers, we dint spend significant amount of time for charging outside of food stops. Both the Relux chargers we got use are placed in highly strategic & crucial points. The staff of Marshal E Tech at Kanyakumari are very friendly and are doing a great job to support EV adoption in the southern most city of our mainland.

Bengaluru - Horanadu - Sringeri - Hariharapura - Bengaluru

We had been wanting to go to Horanadu for quite a while. Although we had travelled all the way to Sringeri a couple of times in the last month, we weren't able to drive down to Horanadu due to absence of chargers in this area. 

Last week, we were traveling to Hariharapura for an event and had some extra time at hand before reaching there. So decided to give a shot at visiting Horanadu. So i messaged a friend from the MG owners WhatsApp group who had recently visited Horanadu and gotten support from the admin to show charge at their office. 

After speaking to the admin and getting assurance that he will provide a power point for slow charging we started from home at 5pm. The plan was to reach Horanadu by mid night and leave the car on charge until late morning. Then to decide a drive to Udupi and top up at Manipal inn or to directly head to Hariharapura. If we did not go to Udupi and charged to 100% at Horanadu, we will be able to easily make it back until Gateway hotel Chikmagalur.

Charging at Relux Shantigrama alongside a Nexon

So, we stopped at Relux Shantigrama for a top up and reached Horanadu as per plan at 1230. To our surprise a Nexon was already charging there! The person at the counter said that the Nexon EV had reached at 1030 and had plugged in at the only accessible 15A plug. Without the ability to charge here, we would be stuck.

We waited until morning and called the admin to explain the situation. He arranged an alternative location, which lost power after an hour. By then the Nexon had finished charging and we plugged in. 

Charging at Horanadu admin office

So we now decided to skip Udupi and stay for getting some more charge in the car, and have lunch at Horanadu. Mom wanted to have Annapurneshwari's prasada for lunch. Squeezing in Udupi would be too tiring, since we were already sleep deprived.

We charged for a couple of hours that gave about 10% SoC boost and with 63% headed to Hariharapura via Sringeri, being aware that we have to critically find a place to charge there. We most likely won't be able to make it back to Chikmagalur or Shivamogga FCs.

Luckily, the manager at Hariharapura Mutt was very supportive and helped find a wall plug to charge. We were happy souls and let the car charge until morning to get to 100%. 

Then we left after lunch and headed all the way to paakashala Yediyur without a single charging stop. This is probably the longest i have driven without charging stop. Given it was a Saturday evening, there was practically no traffic on the road. I was able to set cruise control at 95 and just enjoy the drive. It gave good efficiency too.

A bus being charged at Paakashala Yediyur

We reached Paakashala with 19% SoC left. A bus was charging at the 50kW charger but they obliged and unplugged allowing us to charge. We did a 20 minute top up that took the SoC to 55%, more than sufficient to reach home. We finished dinner at paakashala and finally reached home close to miss night with 24% SoC left.

With just one charging stop each way and little bit of asking around for wall socket to charge, i think i am climbing up the learning curve of trip planning on EV.