[DigitalOne]

I had to go to Chennai last week to attend to a family matter. When it was time to come back, I vaguely recalled reading a news article that NueGo had introduced an electric bus service on this route. So took the opportunity to see what it is all about.

I booked using the Paytm app. Weekday (Thursday) AC seater fare was just Rs 524, including GST; To compare, a KSRTC Airavat AC starting at same time was around Rs 780.

Pickup was from Koyambedu, opposite Sangeeta hotel, marked as "Sharma Transports" in Google maps. Paytm app had the link to the right pickup spot, but no contact details of the operator. I did a dumb mistake of not trusting the app but asked the auto driver for the pickup point for private buses. He dropped me about 500m ahead, and I had to walk back in the hot sun .

Pick up spot:



The bus was scheduled to start at 3PM. When I reached at ~2.10, the bus was already there, AC was switched on and the cool air inside the bus was so welcome after that 10-minute walk.







I felt the seats were thinner compared to the Volvo busses. But the recline was excellent and it was comfortable. Less than 50% of the seats were occupied, so I could use both the seats throughout the journey .

The bus started on dot 3 pm from Koyambedu. But in the next two pickup points there was a cumulative delay of around 40 mins for the pickups: unhappy. Operators (including KSRTC) have to do something to curb this nuisance of passengers taking their own sweet time to reach pickup spots. By the time the bus left Poonamallee road KFC, it was 4.20 pm.

There were a lot of squeaking noises and one particular flapping noise inside which somewhat negated the lack of engine noise. (The bus was new, and these noises may probably settle down eventually). It definitely was not 'noiseless' as they advertise. Ride quality was comparable to a Volvo ICE bus, nothing superior.

At around ~6.30 pm, between Vellore and Ambur, the bus took a U-turn under a flyover, came back a couple of kms towards Vellore and stopped at a newly setup NueGo charging station cum rest stop. I wasn't expecting this, as I had assumed it will reach Bengaluru on a single charge.





2 NeuGo buses towards Chennai were getting charged, one left just as our bus entered.

The bus stopped for almost an hour (55 minutes, to be precise) here. The driver initially told 30 minutes. This board is kind of hidden.



Yes, technically 55 is '30+ minutes' but it could have been better informed . The rest rooms are also in the back of the restaurant. I wonder how they are going to manage when it rains? (Is it safe to charge outdoors during rains?)

Ironically, there was a power cut at the charging station, and the DG sets were running on full steam. So much for 'sustainable clean energy' .







The bus eventually left at 8pm and reached Silk board at 11pm (~8 hours) where I got down. A comparable trip by a KSRTC Airavat would have taken 6.5 - 7 hrs.

In summary, on the plus side, the fare was cheaper (introductory pricing??), busses are new, seats are comfortable, and the AC was super effective. On the minus, the duration is long. The novelty would soon wear of and they would be compared with other ICE operators. They need to pull up their socks.

[Aditya]

NueGo Electric Bus Service Review | Bengaluru to Chennai - Post moved to a new thread.

[Rahkehs]

I have used the Nuego services a few times between Delhi-Dehradun. The buses are decently maintained and comfortable. The fare though dynamic is generally around 60% of State Transport Volvo buses and take approx. 45min-1 hrs more to complete Delh-Dehradun journey (225KMs).

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Excellent review of the service. Hope maintenance is good. Is this the same company that was in news for vehicle fire on rear impact not so long ago? How did you feel regarding safety aspect, was any safety briefing given?

[anilsurya1985]

Just a couple of days back my wife travelled between Hyderabad and Vijayawada which is very popular route and there are many Nuego services launched on this route. Here is what the experience was, the bus reached the pickup point on time and started on time. On the Hyd-Vjwd route there is a compulsory bus charging halt around 175 Kms from both sides and on the day of the journey there was a power cut and a number of buses were waiting in queue for charging which caused a delay of 2 hrs then mentioned ETA. I think the biggest problem is charging infrastructure, if that is resolved, I think many commuters will opt for these buses.

[GeeTee TSI]

The KSRTC electric buses (Power Plus) does a non stop service to Madikeri (250 kms) which I have personally experienced. Assuming the buses are not poles apart in hardware and battery capacity, wonder why the Nuego requires a charging halt for a 350 km ride. Could it be perhaps to reduce operational downtime between services?

[msa.30789]

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

The KSRTC electric buses (Power Plus) does a non stop service to Madikeri (250 kms) which I have personally experienced. Assuming the buses are not poles apart in hardware and battery capacity, wonder why the Nuego requires a charging halt for a 350 km ride. Could it be perhaps to reduce operational downtime between services?

I think NueGo doesn't have a dedicated depot like other STCs have. They keep roating their Chennai buses between Pondicherry and Bengaluru. Hence they stop for charging at that place. Chennai to Pondicherry by GST road does have a restaurant with charging point, while ECR doesn't.

[shyampsunder]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

I wonder how they are going to manage when it rains? (Is it safe to charge outdoors during rains?)

Ironically, there was a power cut at the charging station, and the DG sets were running on full steam. So much for 'sustainable clean energy'

It was one of my concerns about buying an EV for long distance driving mainly between Chennai and Bangalore about charging in rain. Did my research and it is pretty safe. The charging equipment and car/bus is designed to charge during rain. An isolation test is part of the CCS protocol which runs at the start of every charging session which ensures that safety is not compromised.

The only issue is that sometimes the power supply goes down during rain and we reach your second point. DG backups are precisely that, they are backup options. They are too expensive to depend on for regular operations. I am glad that they have planned and provided for it to ensure commuters are not stranded. Instead of running 100% of the trips on diesel, if this means 2% of the trips are powered by diesel, it's a big change.

Operators are already experimenting with adding on site battery storage to handle intermittent power outages but I am guessing we are a long way away from doing that for bus charging.

I have charged at Zeon's charging station at Omalur colocated with NueGo's charging hub between Coimbatore and Bangalore and I have been curious about the experience of the users. Thanks for the write up.

Some pictures from the hub at Omalur. For those curious about the tech specs, seems to be an Exicom 250 kW dual CCS guns unit where both guns plug in to the bus.

[msa.30789]

Originally Posted by SuperGirl_Dad

Excellent review of the service. Hope maintenance is good. Is this the same company that was in news for vehicle fire on rear impact not so long ago? How did you feel regarding safety aspect, was any safety briefing given?

Yes. It is the same company. They operate allover India. That accident happened due to acid leak from the battery when a car collided with the bus. It is not due to lack of safety precautions not being taken by the operator.

[nithishsaba]

I've been traveling in Nuego buses for quite some time now. Their busses are quite good and most are veera coach buses with skywell chassis from china. I found two irritating things during my trips:
1. They turn off AC during the charging stops which gets quite uncomfortable inside the bus.
2. When we book seats in the first row, there is an ADAS kinda system integerated in their dashcam which shouts everytime the bus goes near a vehicle for collision warning which is quite disturbing.

[turbospooler]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

Ride quality was comparable to a Volvo ICE bus, nothing superior.

In summary, on the plus side, the fare was cheaper (introductory pricing??), busses are new, seats are comfortable, and the AC was super effective.

Originally Posted by Rahkehs

I have used the Nuego services a few times between Delhi-Dehradun.

Originally Posted by anilsurya1985

Just a couple of days back my wife travelled between Hyderabad and Vijayawada which is very popular route and there are many Nuego services launched on this route.

How was the experience of being driven in an EV? I ask specifically from the point of whether the ReGen was set at a high level making it a jerky affair while coasting on the highway?
My relatives availed the MSRTC service ShivaE (it is spelled Shivai, but I played around the words to make it an EV service) from Pune to Solapur and they were not at all happy with the regen level set. The journey is ideal for coasting as there are no hills or ghat but only plain and flat roads. The moment the driver used to release the foot and try coasting, they faced a jerky motion of regen kicking in.
So want to understand if NeuGo's drivers are better trained at this than MSRTC driver.

[Rahkehs]

How was the experience of being driven in an EV? I ask specifically from the point of whether the ReGen was set at a high level making it a jerky affair while coasting on the highway.

For me, the Nuego bus was silent, had less noise and vibration when compared to Volvo for the same route. 60% fare was icing on the cake.

[Theron_blr]

My biggest gripe with this bus was that I could feel every tiny aberrations on the road. The suspension was not up to mark. In my opinion, this is no where near KSRTC's Airavatha service or the club busses and in my one travel, they made us wait for 1.50 hours in a really pathetic restaurant when coming from tirupati to BLR.

[RajaGs]

I happen to travel in NeuGo bus from Bangalore to Chennai on 6-Jun-24. It was happy that I could catch the bus in front of Manyata Tech Park at convenient timing. Bus reached the spot on time at 8:30pm. It was hybrid bus with both the option of Berth and Seating arrangement and depending on once need, we can opt for and accordingly the pricing.
While the bus is quite nice and the berth is convenient and was expecting a smooth ride till Chennai.
It took 2 hours to cross Electronic City (which is as per their schedule), it took 8 hours to reach Chennai CMBT though there was not much traffic throughout the journey.
While we are approaching near to Vellore, the bus was halted without any announcement. On enquiry with cabin crew, i understood that the bus require charging and it seems there is a pit shop exclusive for NeuGo busses for charging. With only 2 ports available, there was 5 busses already waiting for their turn to charge. There was no proper food available with only Tea and Coffee from a small vendor there.
Also the AC was switched off, which resulted lot of suffocation inside the bus which resulted most of people who are awake have to get down of the bus. As it was a rainy day (luckily a slight drizzling), it was really a pathetic situation as no chair with proper shed provided for the passengers to sit.
Having said it was 2am, when the bus stopped, the journey resumed at 3:35am and resulted most of us to sit somewhere on side of the road.
Knowing that there are so many busses in transit in this line, why don't NeuGo have more charging ports? What will be the state of the bus, if there is a power shutdown?
I understood that these busses can cover a distance of 270km in a single charge, they should have charging station at least in 2 to 3 places.
Moreover the end-to-end travel journey from Manyata Tech Park to Chennai CMBT took 10 hours, which is way beyond the expectation.

[virgo129]

Originally Posted by Theron_blr

My biggest gripe with this bus was that I could feel every tiny aberrations on the road. The suspension was not up to mark. In my opinion, this is no where near KSRTC's Airavatha service or the club busses and in my one travel, they made us wait for 1.50 hours in a really pathetic restaurant when coming from tirupati to BLR.

The KSRTC Powerplus electric buses seem to be much better in their design and operation. They do not ply where the distance is over 300 km, and hence no pitstop charging, no passenger inconvenience. They stop at decent highway food courts, with proper restrooms and covered seating. When the battery range eventually increases in newer models, more routes can be added. This is a great model for private EV buses to adopt.

On the private side (at least in Karnataka), VRL has the most sorted operations model with ICE Volvos and Eichers of 13 m. Their fleet is very comfortable, they have their own pitstops including restaurants and fuel pumps. Even the menu cards are VRL branded and standardised. Obviously VRL charges a bit more, but it is about time we as a nation became willing to pay more for better quality service. I hope other private operators are willing to catch up with VRL over the coming decade. Our fast growing economy needs this, and it will make quality services more affordable every passing year.