[GTO]

So, Eddy just drove the MG ZS EV and is sold on the car / technology. The Hyundai Kona left everyone in the office impressed. And after I drove the f-a-s-t Tesla & luxurious E-Tron, I am ready to welcome an EV as the 2nd or 3rd car of the house (but not the 1st - that has to be a 6 or 8 cylinder beast ).

The EVs are coming, guys. Tata's Nexon Electric is entering production. While the number of models is too limited today, there will be a good choice in 2 - 4 years; EVs are coming from everyone, be it Maruti-Toyota and all the way up to Audi (E-Tron) & Porsche (Taycan).

When will you buy one? Or will you? Please vote in the poll!

Related Threads:

All you need to know about EVs (Electric Cars...through the eyes of a diehard petrol-head)

Hyundai Kona

Home Charger (Setting up an Electric Vehicle charging point at home)

[venks]

With Uber and Ola's of the world around, I am not thinking about the second or third car. Most likely one car that can take me through cities and highways (very important
). I think it will take ~4 years or maybe more for charging infrastructure to catchup with fuel stations on the highway in terms of accessibility.

[Vid6639]

I'm convinced on EV's and that they are the perfect solution for a city car. Still it can't be primary car in the house since long distance is not served.

That said the biggest roadblock is charging infrastructure. In cities like Mumbai and Delhi getting a fixed parking space in your apartment is not possible unless you stay in the newer complexes. Many in Mumbai/Delhi park on streets.

In cities like Bangalore, parking is not the problem but Bangalore is probably the only metro city that has very frequent power cuts. What's the point of the EV when there are days in summer and even monsoon when there is no power through the night or through the day. You can't live without a DG or a UPS/Inverter here.

Now add the additional load to charge your car and I'm not sure how the grid will cope up. In many older apartment complexes 10+ years like mine, I can't even run multiple AC+water heater at same time else it trips. I'm on 5KW and would need to upgrade from the electricity grid to support the additional power needed for the car.

I'm not moving to EV anytime soon till Bangalore city has guaranteed power 24x7. I don't see that happening soon hence I don't see an EV in my garage till another 5 years.

[Tgo]

Voted Mid-term: 3-4 years

Reasons:
1. Installed Solar PV at home 2 years ago. Electricity bill is negligible these days.
2. The city car at home is in the 10th year of ownership.
3. Cars like the Nexon EV seem to be a good all-rounder on paper.
4. Have a capable outstation tourer to rely on if the EV has teething troubles.

[ashis89]

I voted for 5+ years. I feel the technology hasn't matured enough for large scale adoption.

Reasons:

1. Limited range: For me, the car should be able to do 1000 kms at a time with minimal down time.

2. Charging time: Anything more than 15-20 mins. is a problem and needs a lot of planning. For a long trip, this charging time will increase the overall travel duration.

3. Charging infrastructure: Our country doesn't have necessary infrastructure to be able to charge cars while traveling. Each travel will need to be planned carefully. I might not be able to take it everywhere due to lack of infrastructure. Even in US, I read about Tesla owners waiting in line for hours together to charge their cars at supercharging stations.

4. Primary car: Due to all the above reasons, it can't be my primary car and I can't afford to spend large sums on a secondary, city-only car.

5. Power requirements: As a country, are we producing enough surplus power to charge the EVs. In the article above, about the Tesla, owners have complained that the cars were charging very slowly even on the supercharging network (not able to cater to the load/demand?)

Hyderabad has the electric airport buses running for quite some time now. There are quite a few eVerito and Tigors running on OLA as well. In Bangalore, I have seen people zipping away on their Ather scooters and I must say, I am curious what if I owned an EV. At the same time, I have seen 2 Athers dying abruptly which the owners couldn't restart and that did dent my confidence on the product/technology (though I haven't witnessed any electric car dying or broken down yet).

I am still not convinced about the technology and it is still quite a few years away before EV can CO-EXIST with the ICE cars. Replacing the ICE cars should be even further down the line, IMO!

[navin]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

In cities like Mumbai and Delhi getting a fixed parking space in your apartment is not possible unless you stay in the newer complexes. Many in Mumbai/Delhi park on streets.

I agreed. Most older apartment buildings just won't have the charging infrastructure.

EVs only make sense for those who have garages or some kind of organized parking. This is why out of the 20 votes so far, I am the only one who believes EV is impractical for at least the old metros like Mumbai and Delhi.

"Rubbish, no EVs for me". I doubt I will see EVs having a significant share of automobile sales during my lifetime.

Originally Posted by GTO

I am ready to welcome an EV as the 2nd or 3rd car of the house (but not the 1st - that has to be a 6 or 8 cylinder beast ).

As far as performance goes, I believe EVs will be able to match the performance of most sports cars.

[condor]

A city car, yes. May be in 5 years. At this time, I think prices are still on the higher side. But the primary car at this time has to be a diesel/petrol, since a typical long drive to native is 600-650 km. Not to speak of any long drives.

[Kannan]

Voted for "Long-term (5+ years later)"

I can afford only one car and that too up to a budget of around ₹10L on road.
I will be using that for daily office commute as well as monthly home city visit. My home city visit would be around 900 KMs for the entire trip which comes to around 450 KMs one direction and daily office commute would be around 25 KMs per day.

I'm hoping may be in 5 years of time, the prices will come down and charging infrastructure will improve.

[Thermodynamics]

I'll wait until they become affordable and convenient to power up.

The ground reality: it is going to be 2020 and we still have widespread power outages. We haven't met even domestic electricity demand. Considering our economic situation, I am not sure if the Government spending would be enough to build infra-structure in short term. So my vote goes to long-term wait and watch game.

I wish good luck to enthusiasts and early adopters with a caution, dead EVs are next traffic mayhems.

[Miyata]

Voted for Mid-term (3 - 4 years)! I would love to replace one car with an EV. However, Bangalore is not yet in a place to support that - just as Vid6639 mentioned and elaborated. As soon as a drop of rain is seen in the horizon, there are power cuts many places in Bangalore - very comical!

Will assess the EV market in about 3-yrs time to check among reliable options. If I do manage to find one, will surely be going to get one!

As for the charging infrastructure - I think it's growing well keeping in step with the increasing EVs in the market. The airport has dedicated charging points; My current office has them; I've seen few at BESCOM offices; My dad's independent house will be getting one. I don't seen any yet in my apartment complex, but our association seems to be good and forward thinking. I am sure we'll find a way to get something here. Things are looking up for EV, surely.

[Dippy]

I haven't driven an EV yet but the technology is very very impressive. I see a big bump in EVs for India in the next 4 years and hopefully that would help the Govt. along with the manufacturers to set up the charging infrastructure and well as sort out power issues in cities like Bangalore as Viddy mentioned.

What is interesting is I had a talk about the charging infra with the Tata guys about public charging facilities and how they could work together with Tata power to set up the infra say on the Mumbai -Pine Expressway with chargers at food courts. Well good news that is part of the plan. If this happens I dont see why the Indian buyer wont embrace the EV.

As far as I am concerned, I would love to have an EV is my garage but as a second of third car. I have covered, fixed parking slots owned by us and setting up a charger wont be an issue.



That said, I see an EV in the family in the long term say after more than 5 years. Our next car change ie. replacement for the Civic will be in a year of two and that will sure be an IC engined SUV. My Polo GT is just 3 years old and I plant to hold onto it atleast for 7 years. Hopefully prices of EVs will be streamlined and affordable as well.

[bluevolt]

As long as internal combustion engines are in production, I will still go with fossil fuel powered car. No electric car for me till they phase out ICE based cards totally. Hence, voted for "Rubbish, no EVs for me".

While it is exciting for EV to make a buzz, I am worried about the charging stations infra that will be in India.

[ds.raikkonen]

I am open to getting an EV hatchback mostly for daily run about. Will wait for at least 3-4 years for the infra to develop. For ex. getting a charging point in the basement parking lot of the apartment where I live. Till then, ICE all the way

[libranof1987]

Two aspects to this:

1) The ability to own one: this includes having the money, the infrastructure to park/charge the car and a use case to have one in the garage.

2) The objective to own one: if the very reason to own an EV is to do whatever bit possible for the environment, the only people who can get these are those that have their electricity off a solar grid. There's no point saving emissions from a fuel car by burning coal or diesel (for gensets).

So, very pragmatically speaking, I think long, longish term.

[serious_maniac]

Voted for short term and that is me. Realistically the country will be ready for EVs in medium term. Technology goes through hockey stick growth curve. Charging seems to be the pain point for many people for adoption. Government will incentivise / push public parking spaces like malls, offices to provide for car charging infrastructure. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad have fantastic opportunity for putting chargers at airports, which Govt should push quickly. Coupled with expensive diesel technology, cabs will pick up EVs and the rest will follow.

All of this could get undone if Govt doesnt push enough.

~sm