[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by wocanak

Easiest way is to call their customer care when your car is charging at a Zeon charger and tell them to capture the ID and request for it to be registered for auto-charging. They will ask you to confirm exactly which charger you are using, the car make etc and raise a request. It takes about 1 day for it to be activated and you will get a notification on app/SMS/email that it has been activated.

I heard you can also call customer care after you have completed at least one charging, you may have to share the invoice details/charging log for them to correctly identify the charging session and the car ID. Better to do it within few days after a charging session as they may not hold the details for long.

Once setup, it is so convenient, just plug in and it starts charging as long as you have some minimum balance. You can also top up after charging starts. I cannot understand why others have not enabled this feature. This is part of the CCS2 protocol, so pretty much all cars and chargers are capable of doing it.

Thank you. Very useful info. Did not know about this before.
Is this feature available with chargers of other companies as well?

[Durango Dude]

Made an excellent read! Though I may not be going in for an EV any time soon, the infrastructure challenges and the almost nonexistent used car value may be the biggest challenge for EV's. Voted 5* well written travelogue.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by sushanthys

Attachment 2489646

Total distance covered – 1287 km
Toll expenses – Rs.1575
DC Fast Charging expenses – Rs.4377

Originally Posted by sushanthys

Points worth Discussing

- Long drives are possible in Electric cars. It requires some planning, a good car and a bit of luck. But isn’t that the case with all road trips?

- There is a way to drive an EV. You get the best efficiency when you maintain a constant speed without sudden accelerations or braking. Since single pedal driving is possible due to presence of regenerative braking in EVs, brake usage can be reduced. If you keep revving and breaking incessantly, range will come down. EVs don’t like bumper to bumper traffic, for the same reason. Using automatic climate control can also reduce range. Use Eco Mode and reduce A/c blower settings once the cabin has cooled down. Although our car had cruise control, we forgot to use it during the drive, hence can’t comment on its effect on range.

- Climbing mountains is not an EV’s cup of tea. The climb will throw your calculations out of the window. It is always better to shut off the A/c during the climb as it will save some battery consumption. But what goes up must come down. You will definitely get regen during your descent. What you lost on the way up, you will gain on the way down.

- During both the times that I drove in the night, the EV gave superb efficiency. Maybe it has got something to do with the cooler temperatures. Don’t know if it is a documented phenomenon. Just my observation.

- When you are going on a long drive, plan a charging stop every 200 – 250 km to avoid significant range anxiety( the distance may change depending on the battery capacity of your EV)

- Fast chargers are generally unmanned. As I mentioned in my previous article on EVs, you need to be tech savvy to operate a fast charger. The entire procedure should be done via the respective app on the phone. Although the chargers have a touchscreen interface, the mobile phone is the intermediary. You have to install the app, add enough money, connect the charging gun and start the charging. Some apps have an easy interface, some difficult. You cannot pay cash for charging. And you should have multiple digital payment options at hand. At Coimbatore, my UPI app was not working as the bank server was down. My preferred internet banking (SBI) was not available on the app. Finally, I was forced to use my ATM Debit card for the online transaction, which I had not done in ages.

- There is another way to do DC Fast charging. These machines can be operated with a RFID card which you can tap to start the charging. You have to make sure that there is enough money in your app wallet. The RFID card is necessary to terminate the charging session as well. At Attur, there was a staff person who had the RFID card with him who was helping with the machine operation, but he was not around when we reached. In the present scenario, you cannot leave the RFID card by the machine as it may get misplaced or stolen. Zeon gives the option of buying RFID cards for use at their chargers. The RFID card costs Rs.330 and can be ordered via the app.

Excellent writeup and informative for us EV fence sitters. ZS EV is probably the only EV car that I have admired on this side of 50L EVs.

However, isn't the fast charging an extremely costly affair? For instance a similar trip in my Ecosport S TDCI with the mentioned speeds at a FE of 23 KMPL of the mentioned speeds and conditions will cost me around 5100 bucks. That's just 800 Rs. more than what you needed.

That along with the other quoted limitations still make me refrain for going on an EV. The almost nil resale cost (after usage of 7-8 years) and the state of battery over the years is bothersome thing for me.

[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by 07CR

Excellent writeup and informative for us EV fence sitters. ZS EV is probably the only EV car that I have admired on this side of 50L EVs.

However, isn't the fast charging an extremely costly affair? For instance a similar trip in my Ecosport S TDCI with the mentioned speeds at a FE of 23 KMPL of the mentioned speeds and conditions will cost me around 5100 bucks. That's just 800 Rs. more than what you needed.

That along with the other quoted limitations still make me refrain for going on an EV. The almost nil resale cost (after usage of 7-8 years) and the state of battery over the years is bothersome thing for me.

DC fast charging is not necessarily cheap. Each charging session costs close to Rs.1000.
But DC fast charging comes into play only during long drives.The majority of charging time takes place at home, via a 15A plug or a wall charger.
This AC charging cost is significantly less than fuel costs.
That said, our politicians will soon find a way to tax this segment and home charging costs will go up over time.
And petrol costs for a journey of this duration will be even more as compared to diesels.

[lejhoom]

Enjoyed reading the real-life expedition of an EV driver and more enjoyable were the photos. Thanks. I can’t help mention the beauty of the cursive writing in your thread. I have been wondering if doctors do undergo handwriting-improvement sessions these days!

Years ago JIPMER used to be affiliated to Madras University and during my convocation I recollect there was this lady doctor who received SIX gold medals.

[nidhikapoor]

Originally Posted by 07CR

That along with the other quoted limitations still make me refrain for going on an EV. The almost nil resale cost (after usage of 7-8 years) and the state of battery over the years is bothersome thing for me.

I think from what I have read, batteries will outlast the car, so resale should not be an issue.

[varkey]

Originally Posted by sushanthys

Is this feature available with chargers of other companies as well?

I am aware of only Zeon providing this feature, probably got to do with the ABB make chargers that Zeon uses.

It would be a very good improvement if other operators also implement this feature, it makes the charging experience very seamless.

[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by lejhoom

Enjoyed reading the real-life expedition of an EV driver and more enjoyable were the photos. Thanks. I can’t help mention the beauty of the cursive writing in your thread. I have been wondering if doctors do undergo handwriting-improvement sessions these days!

Years ago JIPMER used to be affiliated to Madras University and during my convocation I recollect there was this lady doctor who received SIX gold medals.

Thank you. I would like to point out that some of my batchmates have excellent handwriting.

JIPMER used to be affiliated to Pondicherry university during our times.Dont know the situation at present.

[maximus_fiat]

Awesome writeup doc. The entire experience has been aptly summarized. Charging infrastructure will improve as time progresses. Only worry is the general behavior while charging. People may leave their vehicles and go away for a long time.

[cogWheel]

Originally Posted by sushanthys

A trip down memory lane in a MG ZS EV

Attachment 2489622

Need we say more!

Very well written travelogue. Full of useful information and experiences for EV users.
By the way, I too joined JIPMER in 1998 - as a first year PG Resident in the Department of Physiology. So as a Tutor, I would have taught in the Physiology Labs for your batch. I graduated in 2001. I have fond memories of JIPMER and owe much to my training there. I recall a few of the names of your batch mates from the graphic above!

[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by cogWheel

Very well written travelogue. Full of useful information and experiences for EV users.
By the way, I too joined JIPMER in 1998 - as a first year PG Resident in the Department of Physiology. So as a Tutor, I would have taught in the Physiology Labs for your batch. I graduated in 2001. I have fond memories of JIPMER and owe much to my training there. I recall a few of the names of your batch mates from the graphic above!

Thank you.
That is so nice to hear.
We must have met in the physiology labs, for sure.
Are you Harsha, by any chance?

[extreme_torque]

Excellent thread. Just curious what were your cruising speeds? 7.5km/kwh is great efficiency.

[cogWheel]

Originally Posted by sushanthys

Thank you.
That is so nice to hear.
We must have met in the physiology labs, for sure.
Are you Harsha, by any chance?

Yes, you guessed right!

[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

Excellent thread. Just curious what were your cruising speeds? 7.5km/kwh is great efficiency.

Of the total distance, almost 380 km were driven at night. I got an efficiency of > 8km/kwh during the night drives.The speeds were around 80-90 km/hr.
During the day drives , maintained speeds between 80-100 km/hr on the highways. Usual efficiency was around 7km/kwh. Traffic was less and used mostly regenerative breaking.
I was also surprised at the overall efficiency.

[sushanthys]

Originally Posted by cogWheel

Yes, you guessed right!

Nice. I remember your classes.Physiology was a struggle for me especially with the unfamiliar environment,all that blood letting and of course, can't forget the smoked drums. Those classes definitely helped.
It's a small world after all.

Take care!