[Cliff9091]

It purely depends on use case,

Owned the Tiago EV MR for 2 months now managed to do 2.5k kms which would have otherwise been shared with the diesels in the garage which are very inefficient in Bangalore city traffic.

The EV makes a strong case for itself as a city-runabout or as 2nd or 3rd car to have. Would buy an EV for city use once again. But the long term reliability and resale value still is a question mark for me

[suryaj1990]

Yes! I had a 2020 MG ZS which has been well proven as a workhorse. I sold it and bought a 2023 MG ZS EV with the larger battery pack due to my usage criteria being more highway runs over along distances! Anticipate to buy something close to 600km+ range in the coming future

[anjan_c2007]

I did not vote nor did I buy an EV till date. I will prefer to buy an EV only after 100% of the electricity it consumes, comes from renewable sources of energy.

Burning fossil fuel to generate power and buying an EV that recharges itself with this power, does not make the EV Green.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I did not vote nor did I buy an EV till date. I will prefer to buy an EV only after 100% of the electricity it consumes, comes from renewable sources of energy.

Which is going to take a lot of time. At what percentage would you want to consider
an EV. Here is a simple calculation that should convince you that EV's are already
a much cleaner option.

Let us say that the efficiency of the electric drive train is η (i.e only η fraction of the energy supplied to the battery comes out as effective work. We will need 1/η units of electricity to do 1 unit of work. If β fraction of this electricity comes from fossil fuel then we are spending β/η units of dirty energy for 1 unit of work by the car. Assuming that the ICE drive train is 100% efficient, i.e. it converts 1 unit of dirty energy to 1 unit of work, we will still be better of using EV as long as the fraction of dirty energy in our grid is < η fraction.


What is a realistic estimate of η. I would assume that η = 0.7 is not unreasonable because the efficiency of motor is about 0.9 and let us say the charging/discharging (particularly when slow charging) is each 0.9. Which gives us eta = 0.9 * 0.9 * 0.9 = 0.7. So as long as the fraction of dirty energy in our grid is < 0.7 or alternatively if our grid is at least 0.3 percent green EVs are going to be greener than ICEs even assuming 100% efficiency for ICE. Now factor into this the fact that ICE drive train a grossly inefficient (0.4 is probably the best one can get) you see where the calculation goes.

In short, even with the current mix of energy in India we are much much better of with an EV. And we are adding renewables constantly.

Burning fossil fuel to generate power and buying an EV that recharges itself with this power, does not make the EV Green.

In reality, even when the grid is 100% coal fired, it makes sense to have an EV because of the overall efficiencies of the electric drive train + coal power plant works out much better than the inefficiency of then ICE drive train. And unlike oil, Indian has coal reserves. I would assume that you are also not a hybrid fan either because that too is 100% fossil fuel to charge the battery.

[Hume]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I did not vote nor did I buy an EV till date. I will prefer to buy an EV only after 100% of the electricity it consumes, comes from renewable sources of energy.

Burning fossil fuel to generate power and buying an EV that recharges itself with this power, does not make the EV Green.

That is one interestingly extreme POV!

India aims to have 40% of its total installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. And while it's difficult to say exactly when it can indeed achieve your target of 100% due to several factors like energy storage challenges and policy support, 2050 should be a good estimate.

Not finding fault with your opinion - to each his own. But you'll have to wait a while, just saying...

Originally Posted by kosjam

It would be great if those who have voted NO to give their points of view for the benefit of those who are sitting on the fence, or looking at options currently (like me)

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

I’d like to hear the views of people who have voted no, for an overwhelming majority seem to be extremely satisfied with their EVs. Did your cars have any reliability issues or was it something else?

The biggest reason I can think one might not consider an EV again (in the near future at least) could be due to the clear hit on the resale values they must've experienced on their existing EVs. The plummeting resale values can be a hard pill to swallow and this might continue considering the incredible rate of tech development.

Another reason I can think of is due to the sheer number of issues - big and small - that are are evident. Looking at you TATA! As the newer generations come, here's hoping they rectify most of them.

I for one would buy an EV again. More specifically, I'd buy one that will last me for a minimum of 6-7 years without feeling too compromised on range, performance or features since I keep my vehicles for a long period. Doing so would also offset the resale quotient to some extent. Personally there are far too many pros to an EV that I prioritize to miss out on.

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

I did not vote nor did I buy an EV till date. I will prefer to buy an EV only after 100% of the electricity it consumes, comes from renewable sources of energy.

Burning fossil fuel to generate power and buying an EV that recharges itself with this power, does not make the EV Green.

For a few lakhs more you can have a standalone Solar+Battery, making the EV 100% powered by renewable energy. There is no other vehicle option that can run on 100% renewable energy today!

[sharathkamath04]

Nexon EV Max owner for 18 months (27k km), and I am confident my next car will be an EV.

The car is simply awesome to drive and has been a great upgrade from i10 petrol. Gives me a decent 300km range on highway and city drives.

EV charging infra has grown during my ownership period (more than I expected), with chargers reaching most corners of South India. Also busy routes now have almost 10times the chargers that existed during my purchase ( BGL->MLGR highway has almost 15+ chargers now).

For my next car, I would look for a born EV with a flat floor and a slightly better range of maybe 350-400km in the future.

1 negative with the current car, DC charging speed. It is very slow compared to peers. Tata needs to update this with future cars and maybe even current cars via updates.

[AVIS]

I have had a good experience owning an EV over the last one year - no maintenance and fuel cost (I have access to free car charging).

I feel EVs are not suited for those who drive very less, or make 300+ km trips frequently, or cannot install an EV charger at home. For everyone else, buying an EV is a good alternative.

I would stick to the lower price range EVs though, as these will lose less value when improvements in battery technology roll in.

[GeeTee TSI]

I feel the responses (India) might be limited in terms of depreciation and resale value points of view as yet. Curious to know specifically on that front as a fence sitter myself. Also interested to know from owners about operational cost effectiveness on account of the premium paid over a like for like model.

[sunbaj]

I am having second thoughts about selling my Breza Zxi bought 1 year back and buy MG ZS with the price value of 19Lakhs. I just wish ZS EV with the current price range was out early last year.

[BHPjunkie]

I am a Nexon EV prime user. I would not go for an EV again if given an option. Reason being, the battery tech is still too nascent. Also manufacturer like Tata has no answer if something goes wrong in the battery. The service guys are just clueless about battery tech. Sudden drops, dead battery, performance issues etc. are too common. Instead of EV I would buy a hybrid. Tried and tested tech and slightly more expensive than EV to run.

[Rajeev1]

I am one of the early adopters of EV technology and was one of the first to buy an OLA S1 Pro a few months after the Ola had launched the vehicle. I have so far driven about 7k kilometers which is all within the city limits of Bengaluru.

I have voted "NO" for the simple reason that EV tech is still way behind the simple "fill it, shut it and forget it" funda of "ICE" vehicles.

Three points below to substantiate my vote.

1) In the first place one has to always bear in mind that your vehicle needs to be fully charged - every night this is a subconscious thought which runs through my mind (and possibly every EV owners mind) - "is my vehicle having enough charge for tomorrow and if not should I put it on charge? "....This is NEVER the case with ICE vehicle owners.

2) One has to plan the days trip and god forbid if the kilometers increase due to something unforeseen then you are scre%$d as you are not carrying your charger with you. This has happened multiple times with me and I have somehow managed to reach home gasping on "Limp mode" to be able to resuscitate my scooty....This is NEVER the case with ICE vehicle owners. (My OLA S1Pro runs for approximately 120 kms to a full charge)

3) Even if you plan your trip with some "recharges" on the way - the charger your planned to rechange at doesnt work and again you are scre^%$....This is NEVER the case with ICE vehicle owners.

[TorqueAddict007]

I've driven my new Punch EV only for 200 kms, having taken delivery just three days ago, but I already know there's no way I can go back to driving ICE cars around the same price point. I drove a lot of cars before zeroing in on this one and no combination I drove of any petrol engine in this price point, be it NA + MT, NA + AMT, turbo petrol + AT, had the same level of smoothness, power, or that crazy starting torque as the Punch EV did. I've had the fortune of having driven very slick DCTs as well, but there truly is nothing comparable to the unmatched smoothness of power delivery of the EV, unless you start looking three or four segments above.

Combine that with NVH levels that are simply unattainable in budget ICE cars, especially with so many of them now going the 3 pot route, it's just impossible to want to buy any ICE cars around this price point when you have a fine EV option available. Add in a great deal of fuel savings and it just makes no sense to buy an ICE car in the same price range. Plus there's a lot of sportiness in having paddles to control regen levels and mastering the use of regen and one pedal driving in itself is proving to be an amazing and exciting endeavour.

Of course, it works well for us because the EV is purely a city vehicle as we have the HyCross as our highway tourer. But still, I've decided that if I ever buy another ICE car, it's going to be a 3 series, because that's been a childhood dream.

I think this decision is going to become even easier if there's an EV which can do 400 kms in 20-100 charge at around 100 kmph. None of us in our family can drive or travel for more than that in a single day, and 400 itself is the extreme maximum. Plus the fast charger networks are continuously getting better. The big advantage about India is that it does not have large swathes of extremely sparsely populated areas, nor is it as wide or big as the US or China. So that makes 400 kms of real world highway range at 100 kmph sufficient for almost everybody except the most hardcore tourers.

The only thing I can see which may cause some trepidation is how the resale prices work out in the long run, but the Indian used car market and that of developed economies is very very different. There are just so many people, and so less cars, that at least for the foreseeable future, there will always be good demand in the market.

Sure depreciation may be on the higher side for EVs, but there's a lot of misconceptions around the life of the batteries. Unlike NMC batteries, LFP batteries have very long lifespans, which far exceeds the 8 year warranty period you get on the battery. You'd need to run them to the ground to warrant a total replacement. And beyond 8 years, depreciation catches up really hard for any vehicle, ICE or EV, unless it's a Toyota. And if you're somebody who buys and sells a car every 5-6 years, you'd still be selling it while the battery is under warranty, which means you can command good resale.

Overall, I feel this was the right time to enter the EV segment, as I paid only 2062 rupees in registration charges for my vehicle, given that I'm based in Karnataka. And going forward, I am pretty sure that this no road tax policy for EV is definitely going to go away, as the demand increases, but at the same time, economics of scale should result in a drop in price of production that will make up for this, as well as increased competition.

[shyampsunder]

Having clocked 21k KMs on my ZS EV in roughly 1 year 4 months, there is no chance I am buying an ICE vehicle again.

I have been extremely impressed with ZS EV's sorted EV fundamentals. Zero issues taking it to even 0% SoC, great BMS which errs on the side of caution in estimating range.

Long drives have become so cheap and with the abundance of chargers, they have become very fuss free. This is primarily because of ZS EV's fast DC charging rate which goes up to 74 kW. A 20 minute DC charging session adds enough energy to cover 150 KMs.

But at the same time, I am a bit disappointed to see the problems faced by Tata EV owners. Stuff like slow DC charging rate, HV error etc. Given the large marketshare that they have, it is so easy for people to assume that all EVs face the same issues.

I really hope Tata irons out the kinks and everyone can truly experience the fuss ownership experience of an EV.

[Carcrazy60]

I have a Tiago ev LR. I will probably upgrade to the Punch ev in a year or so. My other car is a Yeti but once I sell this off I would like to go in for a hybrid. The instant torque is so much fun, apart from the silence.