Re: Tata Punch.ev Review 820km trip with Punch EV LR
After Buying Punch EV I was longing for a trip but was waiting for monsoon to set thus planned it towards the end of June. Before the journey was apprehensive to start without Spare tire as was going to interior Maharashtra where Roads were bad at some places hence bought 16-inch Tata Altroz Rim and a tire as suggested by one of the members and it fitted within wheel well space. Day 1 Mumbai to Pawna 120Km
Started at 98% SOC from Mumbai and reached Kumar resort, Lonavala at 57% SOC Since Lonavala is at a high ground 87km distance took 40% charge with AC on. Took lunch break and simultaneously charged the car up to 96% at 60kw JIO BP charger opposite Kumar resort, charging was done without any issue. Stayed at Pawna, the resort had statiq 7.6kw slow charger however could not charge with APP or card hence resort staff did it from their end without charges. Drove 55km for sightseeing in Pawna area next day. Day 3 Pawna to Koyna Nagar 275km
Started the journey towards Satara with 100% SOC. Instead of taking usual Mumbai-Pune Expressway took internal scenic route to reach Pune outskirts and reached wai with 54% SOC. Lunch break was at Hotel Sai Park Inn, food at the restaurant was just ok but decided to align with car charging as it had 60kw charge Zone charger.
Charging failed to start in spite of repeated attempts and hotel staff had no idea so called Charge zone. after delay of 15-20 min charging started but when checked after the lunch, charging had stopped midway at 69% SOC hence decided not to waste time and continued towards Satara. Plan was to charge 100% before taking interior road towards Koyna Nagar as no charging facility was available on the entire 90km stretch from Umbraj up to Chiplun but missed TATA power charging station hence decided to charge at E-fill charging station during Tea break however the charger was of 15kw hence 15% charging also took time. Thus, decided to go towards BPCL Karad which had 60kw charger. When reached saw that they were laying paver blocks and the area was dug up & rains had made the area muddy near the charger hence couldn't charge so continued towards the resort and reached with 43% SOC. efficiency was at 105wh/km. Day 5 Koyna Nagar to Mumbai 345km
Local sightseeing took 8% of charge the previous day so started towards Mumbai with 35% SOC. While doing breakfast at riverside inn, Koyna Nagar I saw 25kw Tata Power charger installed so was happy however with utter dismay manager said that TATA Power is not activating the charger since last two years in spite of their repeated request and asked me do write to Tata Power as well ��
It was raining and single lane state highway with craters ensured driving was at slow pace, I was skeptical about reaching the next charger which was 75km & 1 hour 30 minutes away hence switched off the AC and reached Amrai Resort TATA Charging station, Shendre Satara with 11% SOC. The good part about this location is it has four 60kw Charge Zone chargers and two 25kw TATA Power Chargers. They also have Ather Charger for two wheelers. I tried with 60kw charger but Charging was not initiating so sought help from resort staff who called charge Zone and restarted the chargers but even after 25-30 minutes and couple of restarts it was still not active hence moved to TATA power charger which started instantly. After lunch waited for another 20 minutes to charge the car up to 82% SOC. Weather was good so continued journey without AC. Reached BPCL Varve COCO pump, it has four 60kw chargers & charging was smooth. Charged up to 95% and reached Mumbai with 40% SOC. Energy efficiency achieved at 76.9% for the entire 345km trip and downward journey improved the regen. About the car
Driving Punch EV is fun and being fully loaded, features are useful, Sufficient power in city mode and ample power in sport mode helps when you want to overtake quickly on highway. 300km range is doable on single charge. entire 820km was done with 90wh/km with 55% AC use on a road which had ghats, traffic jams & craters was beyond expectation. Total Charging cost including home charging was about Rs. 2.10 a kilometer. Car is ok till now except if you switch off the AC while car is ON, AC won't be ON again until you restart the car so need to visit service Centre for that. Passenger seats are not comfortable for people with 6ft above height & heavy body frame for long journey if four adults travel together. About charging Infra
Charging Infra is good up to Mumbai- Belagavi (Mumbai- Bangalore Highway) however downloading multiple charging apps and maintaining balances is a hassle where mobile network is not good, I have about 9 apps for Vehicle charging��. Also observed Links were down at most times causing delay in charging. BPCL has many chargers installed but apps like plug share don't show all of them you need to check at internal apps which again is time consuming. JIO BP chargers are by far the best and cheap as well. charging Infra in interior areas of Maharashtra is still bad, you can do a slow charge at few hotels however need to stay for a night and frequent power cut may hamper your charging. In all even if you plan well still you will be spending approx. 1 hour extra for 350km trip even if you combine charging with breaks.
Some random pictures from the trip
Last edited by DHARM : 10th July 2024 at 23:05.
Reason: missed last line
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