[Shresth_EV]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

if you are going to charge an EV with 50-80KW battery - overnight - I wonder how big the panels battery and related circuit needs to be, let alone how expensive.

Anyone who can do this math, we`ll be very thankful as it can set the correct expectations.

Two misconceptions:

1. Most people in general have on grid solar, not off grid. Battery doesn’t even come to picture.

2. You’re not always exhausting the entire battery during one day of driving except on road trips.

In grid solar, your total import (electricity bought from discom) and export (electricity sold to discom by solar) are subtracted and bill is generated accordingly

In UP, excess generation is not given back as payout, it’s simply added to your bill as credit of ₹2/kWh exported.

This is where point two comes in, even if you do need to charge your EV fully at home once in a while, you would have enough credit against your bill to not make a dent.

And mostly, in my own case, driving 40km per day depletes 15-17% on our Nexon EV prime. That’s just 4-5kWh and is charged up in 1-2h

Daily usage of 5kWh for ev’s charging is manageable even on my 3kW plant. It would be even easier on our grandparent’s 5kW plant but they also have 3 storey compared to our single storey house so that figures.

So for the general populace, say, have a 5kW solar (my grand parents place does) makes 25-30kWh in a good summer day in UP.

We paid 1.5L (3L gross, 1.5L net after subsidy) for 3kW solar in 2021, 5kW was ~3L

So by having 10kW solar in non hilly area, you’d spend around 6L (not sure about subsidy if there is a cap on total amount as ratio of ₹X per kWh upto total ₹Y)

10kW will be enough to charge a 50kWh EV.

Otherwise, it purely depends on how much you drive. <50km, 3kW solar is enough (3BHK single storey house assumed)

For 50-100km, 5-7kW

For more than 100km, 10kW is sweet spot.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

In the days of Reva, which was a tiny car this was probably practical but now, if you are going to charge an EV with 50-80KW battery - overnight - I wonder how big the panels battery and related circuit needs to be, let alone how expensive.

Anyone who can do this math, we`ll be very thankful as it can set the correct expectations.

The car is charged from the same grid you feed your solar power into, ie. the grid is your battery.

One doesn't need a battery, unless the location faces intermittent power cuts then, yes a UPS system, but that's for home/personal use. In fact the EV has an added benefit of providing power to grid in case of emergencies.

A 2kW system costs about a lac and it then produces free electricity for you. The energy output of a 2kW solar system is approximately 8kWh or 8 units per day. This means a 2kW solar system's monthly production is 240-300 units, amounting to 2880 units per year. Say Rs 10 a unit, approx. Rs 25k a year. Depending on the state you get substantial subsidies/grants for Solar panel installation.

After seeing the benefits we expanded our 2kW installation to 6kW, whether you like EVs or not having roof top solar is a no brainer. If one does not live in a flat, has your own terrace/roof top, can afford to do so, Yes please install solar panels.

If one resides in a flat, then that is a massive stumbling block to EV ownership in my opinion. The benefits of having ones own solar setup, home charging etc. get thrown out of the window. Stick to a good diesel in that case.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by Shresth_EV

Two misconceptions:

Otherwise, it purely depends on how much you drive. <50km, 3kW solar is enough (3BHK single storey house assumed)

For 50-100km, 5-7kW

For more than 100km, 10kW is sweet spot.

To add to what Shresth_EV said. We have a net metered (grid connected) 3kW solar
supporting a 2-storey standalone house. Before we had the EV we were producing excess power. What that means is that we had a monthly bill of about 200 Rs (for the fixed charges) and electricity credits. The DISCOM (KSEB in our case) had agreed to pay us the price for the excess electricity and had infact took our Bank details but then one needs to go behind them to get these things done.

With an EV we are roughly break even (last electricity bill was about 300 Rs of which 200 is fixed charges). We had a problem with our Solar invertor (fixed under warrently) and had to pay for the full electricity last OCT (not the month when we would have peak demand) and it came to about 3000 Rs. So the solar is saving us about 2.5 K every month. Now it might not look like a big amount but in combination with EV you have to see that it is saving us on the petrol price (not on the electricity price) which can easily be close to 10 K every month.

[Encyclopedic]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

As of today there are no major EV offerings in MUV segment. There is only 1 offering BYD E6 which costs 31 lakhs on road in Delhi compared to 33.8 lakh for Invicto. BYD e6 has the BYD blade battery which gives easy 500 km range.

Any vehicle of similar size and seating capacity ,be it XUV 700,Hycross or Safari,in EV avatar would have costed me 5-8 lakhs more,it is just an assumption.

We can't really compare apples to oranges,Mg ZS EV,BYD E6 and BYD Atto are all quite different vehicles(read 5 seats or cramped space) and shouldn't be compared with full fledged MPV.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

What are all those departments? ZS EV has a bigger battery, better real-world range, better DC fast charging, and more interior and boot space. Even the XUV400 has faster DC charging, is more spacious, and is cheaper. Even the base executive variant of ZS EV is well-loaded with all the necessary features.

ZS has a 10 kw bigger battery but it returns only 20 to 30 Kms more than Nexon Max (Nexon 280 to 300 vs ZS's 300 to 330). I have both cars in my circle and I do talk to them. I'm not going by tall claims I see on some social media posts. ZS is longer than Nexon but rear seat appears cramped than Nexon. Maybe it has gone to trunk. Faster DC charging on ZS, yes. Cheaper? Well, today it is.

All that aside, do you think ZS is s looker? Please answer honestly. I, for one, can't look past its looks. Hell, no. It's one of the most boring sad looking car. It looked dated next to even older Nexon, 3 years back, when it was launched. And next to today's Nexon Facelift? I had better not say. I leave it at that. Beauty may mean nothing to some but it means a lot to me.

When you mention XUV400, shouldn't you also mention about its NMC battery and the associated issues it has vis-a-vis LFP of Tata-MG?

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

All that aside, do you think ZS is s looker? Please answer honestly. I, for one, can't look past its looks. Hell, no. It's one of the most boring sad looking car. It looked dated next to even older Nexon, 3 years back, when it was launched. And next to today's Nexon Facelift? I had better not say. I leave it at that. Beauty may mean nothing to some but it means a lot to me.

May be I have a strange sense of beauty but I found the ZS EV to be better looking (particularly the red with the black grill). One big complaint that I have about Nexon EV (old version) is its looks particularly the rear styling. I agree that the facelift version has cleaned it up significantly (particularly the grey version).

The other thing I like about the ZS EV is its bland look. It does not try to make a statement like "I am EV"; you might almost mistake it for a regular Astor if you are not careful. I like such cars.

Originally Posted by atin001

Big plans this year
1) buy a villa
2) install solar
3) sell ecosport
4) get MG ZS EV (new executive or used 2022 exclusive)

We'll see how it goes

You missed the last point. Let me add it for you

5) Have fun.

[atin001]

Originally Posted by electric_eel

May be I have a strange sense of beauty but I found the ZS EV to be better looking (particularly the red with the black grill). One big complaint that I have about Nexon EV (old version) is its looks particularly the rear styling. I agree that the facelift version has cleaned it up significantly (particularly the grey version).

The other thing I like about the ZS EV is its bland look. It does not try to make a statement like "I am EV"; you might almost mistake it for a regular Astor if you are not careful. I like such cars.

+1 If not for the green plates, it would be hard to notice that ZS is an EV.

Also I personally love the ZS EV in black.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by electric_eel

The other thing I like about the ZS EV is its bland look. It does not try to make a statement like "I am EV"; you might almost mistake it for a regular Astor if you are not careful. I like such cars.

I think that goes for New Nexon, too. That EV blue strips are gone now. Only tell-tale difference is .EV badge.

On looks front, I don't like blanked-out front grill. Looks so yucky. Mercifully, Tata didn't do that to Nexon but they did it to Punch EV. This is my biggest complaint with front-end of MG, XUV400 and Punch.

[padmrajravi]

Voted for Hyryder V Hybrid. My brother in law recently booked this variant. We had a hard look at all the options and concluded that we can not live with the EV range anxiety. His use case is short drives inside Bangalore city and biweekly Bangalore Calicut runs. ICE cars can do this run in 6 30 hours with a 4 AM start. I am not aware of any EV that can do this run with in this door to door time. In our calculation, EVs will add a minimum of one hour to this trip.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Voted for Hyryder V Hybrid. My brother in law recently booked this variant. We had a hard look at all the options and concluded that we can not live with the EV range anxiety. His use case is short drives inside Bangalore city and biweekly Bangalore Calicut runs. ICE cars can do this run in 6 30 hours with a 4 AM start. I am not aware of any EV that can do this run with in this door to door time. In our calculation, EVs will add a minimum of one hour to this trip.

The distance between Bangalore and Calicut/Kozhikode is 360 kms. Based on the time mentioned by you, it imputes an average speed of 55 kmph. Any EV listed in the list above can do it easily with one stop for breakfast or tea in same amount of time. The stop needs not be more than 30 mins.

Charging options are ample on this route

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

The distance between Bangalore and Calicut/Kozhikode is 360 kms. Based on the time mentioned by you, it imputes an average speed of 55 kmph. Any EV listed in the list above can do it easily with one stop for breakfast or tea in same amount of time. The stop needs not be more than 30 mins.

Charging options are ample on this route

Attachment 2571198

That 30 min stop is the problem. Me and brother in law has done this trip countless times in our individual cars. The moment the duration of break reaches close to 30 minutes, I reach home by 11 45 only instead of 10 30. The problem is the traffic intensity in ghat roads and places near Calicut after 8 o clock. When we do this in our Creta or Fortuner, we just take a 10 min break at Wayanad. We carry some snacks and have breakfast once we reach home. The extra 20 mins translates to one hour by the time we reach home.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by pgsagar

On looks front, I don't like blanked-out front grill. Looks so yucky. Mercifully, Tata didn't do that to Nexon but they did it to Punch EV. This is my biggest complaint with front-end of MG, XUV400 and Punch.

I agree, I too do not like the blanked-out front grill (if you notice I mentioned red ZSEV with the black grill) but this could be because the industry has not had time to innovate on this front. For example a dual tone grill (the blanked out grill of a different colour). In any case I dislike the XUV400's grill and the copper accents.

[antz.bin]

Bangalore - Calicut/ Kozhikode in a ZS EV should be possible with ease since the general direction is going downhill to sea level.

The problem is in the other direction when there is a ghat to climb to get to Bangalore.

Outside of Expressways like the Samruddhi, 360-400km non stop is literally at the limit of human endurance as far as driving in India is concerned. Only 0.01% can manage more, non-stop. If anything, the driver has to take a pee break.

The point to remember here is that the current ZS EV was launched in India ~2 years back. MG is already selling the MG4 with a much bigger 64 KWh battery elsewhere in the world for exactly the same price as the 50KWh ZS. It's only a matter of time either the ZS gets a refresh with the bigger battery or the MG4 lands up on our shores ending this debate once and for all.

[Shresth_EV]

Originally Posted by Encyclopedic

Any vehicle of similar size and seating capacity ,be it XUV 700,Hycross or Safari,in EV avatar would have costed me 5-8 lakhs more,it is just an assumption

You maybe applying the same price premium % seen in lower segments but one thing isn’t factored : higher taxes on cars >1500cc and >4m long

That alone raises price of cars like hyryder and Hycross over something like say, a brezza strong hybrid may have costed

EV getting flat 5% GST could very well provide price parity with ICE cars in >30L segment.

Fellow BHPian antz.bin did the calculations in another thread (Tata Harrier EV caught testing; interior spied).

I’m not saying that you should’ve bought an EV over hybrid, rather, just clarifying that manufacturers can make EVs with price parity of ICE in >30L segment especially if they don’t get greedy over margins and cannibalising ICE sales over EV.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

The distance between Bangalore and Calicut/Kozhikode is 360 kms. Based on the time mentioned by you, it imputes an average speed of 55 kmph. Any EV listed in the list above can do it easily with one stop for breakfast or tea in same amount of time. The stop needs not be more than 30 mins.

Charging options are ample on this route

Attachment 2571198

Apologies, OFF TOPIC.

Driving in Kerala is like battling a traffic jam the entire length of a state, we aren't blessed with 6 lane highways. Many of the state highway stretches are in reality 1.5 lanes wide and you're likely to encounter a state transport bus that eats up 95% of that width. Hence people try and traverse long distances in Kerala as early or as late as possible. Any addition of time, ie. say a 10 minute stop, will elongate your journey by three times at a minimum, so say 30 minutes. Because as time passes more and more cars join the roads. For a comparably small state Kerala has a LOT of cars and very very narrow jam packed roads. If you love driving, Kerala roads will suck that joy out of you!

There's a lot of work being done on the National highway infrastructure currently, but decades of poor investments into this has meant that driving in Kerala can be a miserable affair. I love EVs and would really vouch for them, but the last thing you want to add to your list of driving challenges in Kerala, is range anxiety.