[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I've opted not to use the one-pedal option.

The one pedal option would be required when you are out to test the performance on tap. The regular brakes are not adequate to shed speed while on performance mode with this car. The acceleration can throw you off guard as you try out all that this car throws at you. As I indicated, you need to really use a lot of force to shed speed like high performance cars. That may not be something that most owners are comfortable with.

For city use, one pedal may lead to rear endings if one is not careful. So its best to avoid the one pedal wherever there is a lot of traffic, crowds, school crossings and the like.

One omission is that Volvo have not configured levels of regen as in say the Ioniq 5. This would have helped in the city. However, if out on a fast highway drive use the regen - you will need it.

Happy motoring with one of the fastest (if not the fastest for real world use) cars in India.

And by the way, thats a smashing pic of the car.

[dealer]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

The one pedal option would be required when you are out to test the performance on tap. The regular brakes are not adequate to shed speed while on performance mode with this car. The acceleration can throw you off guard as you try out all that this car throws at you.

On the contrary, the XC40 Recharge's (and C40 Recharge by extension) responsiveness and overall performance is noticeably sharper in the regular two pedal mode compared to the one pedal mode. Also at speeds over a 100, regen is reduced to a great extent so that the One Pedal drive mode can be used on highways without issues. Even at regular speeds, Volvo uses a mix of brakes and regen to slow the car down depending on how fast the user lifts off the accelerator pedal.

Regarding the brakes, the stock 380mm brakes are more than capable enough for repeated high speed braking applications. One Pedal drive is more suited to daily use IMO and two pedal mode should be reserved for spirited drives.

[Evolver]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The Pocket Rocket has clocked in a bit over 500 kms in six days. Looks I'll reach my self imposed 1000 kms mark before writing a thread fairly soon.

Congratulations on your new set of wheels. I went through my own evaluation for my second car for day-to-day chores. Tested Nexon EV, Ioniq 5 and C40 for the EVs, Suzuki GrandVitara for Hybrids, Hyundai Creta, Verna and Kia Seltos for the feature rich ones.

I already have a Volvo XC60 for inter-city rides, which was my trusted companion for my Bangalore-Ladakh round trip this June. The new car was to replace my 11 year old manual Fluidic Verna diesel.

My self imposed no more diesel kept me away from Harrier and the likes. So coming to the cars I checked:
Volvo C40 - amazing build quality, tremendous power on-tap and good handling. But lack of spare wheel space, no sunshade for sunroof and no ventilated seats was a turn off. My Ladakh trip saw a BMW get a tyre become unusable.
Ioniq 5 - was weirdly big and spacious, but build quality had left much to desire at ₹49L mark. The gear shift felt flimsy and placed in a confusing spot under the indicator stick. Also, no spare wheel was a negative.
Nexon EV - checked most of my requirements but quality was a big question. In the TD vehicle, when I wanted to press the horn, didn’t work. Advisor asked me to press from the other end and that worked. Strange! Also, the raised floor caused trouble for getting in and out from the rear seat. My foot wear tended to get stuck because of the raised lip.
Suzuki Grand Vitara - good on spec but 360 camera quality was like an after market level. The engine turning on and off could be felt. What was bad, turning off gave a distinct vibration as if it were a diesel. Sun shade felt translucent and was letting in to much light and warmth.
Verna Turbo petrol - felt really nice to drive, but the ground clearance was my worry, having had my existing ones underbelly scraped at random breakers across Bangalore.
Between Creta and Seltos, Seltos had the turbo petrol, a full sunroof (my wife preferred the full against the half on Creta) and ADAS. Creta might get the facelift but that’s for then.

Finally, my mind took over from my heart. The EV and fuel cost comparison put things out of favor for EVs. Heart wanted a Volvo younger sibling but being the second car and negatives like the spare wheel, mind vetoed for now.
So, in came the Seltos Xline, replacing the Verna.

[V.Narayan]

This past week I did two long intra-city runs for the first time both round trips of roughly 120 to 130 kms each on Delhi's broad roads. The sheer silentness of the car and sheer acceleration are a delight. On the road to Greater Noida I took the car to 100kmph once to check and there is scarcely a ripple in getting there and staying there. After some trial and error I have settled down to recharging it once the range gets to around a 50% charge. My estimate is the real life 100% range is 475 kms without aircon.

[V.Narayan]

On Sunday last I had to go to Mathura for work. The precaution I took was to fast charge the car to 90% the day before - took 35 minutes - so that I had a range of 450 kms showing on the odometer before sailing forth. Reached home the same day with around 250 kms done and with a roughly 40% charge intact. This with highway driving {70 to 90 kmph} and the aircon switched on only when I entered Mathura to keep out the dust. Most of the trip I enjoyed the cold bracing wind of a North India winter.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Most of the trip I enjoyed the cold bracing wind of a North India winter.

Winds and silence at the same time in an automobile, I can only imagine the feeling.
Seems like you're discovering driving all over again
This factor holds the most sway value for me when it comes to EVs.

Have fun, seems like you already are

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by shancz

Winds and silence at the same time in an automobile, I can only imagine the feeling.
Seems like you're discovering driving all over again
This factor holds the most sway value for me when it comes to EVs.

Have fun, seems like you already are

Literally true. Normally for such a trip where I had work meetings at the other end to sort through, I would have taken my driver along. But the fun of driving an EV - silent, vibration free, racing car acceleration driving is a joy to behold. My wife was surprised I chose to go solo. But Sunday early morning drives with limited traffic are a joy by themselves.

[V.Narayan]

I have completed 7 recharging sessions - all partial. Most are typically up from the 40% to 60% battery charge mark to 90% which the book states is the safe level for repeated charging over the long term. I track the kms run on XX %age of charge. For example, the round today started at 37%. It had depleted from 90% and the mileage in between has been 247 kms. A quick arithmetic indicates that translates to 466 kms for the 100% charge. Across my 7 readings about 475 kms for a 100% charge is the average. This round is a wee bit lower due to almost all this distance having been done on the highway from Gurgaon to Mathura and back. The 475 figure is more of a city figure. So I'd say in round figures the range is 465 to 475 kms, fast driving vs city driving. This compares to the advertised range of 530 kms in ideal conditions.

Seven partial recharge cycles are enough in my eyes to assume this range as reasonably accurate. Reality is that I would never knowingly drive the battery charge down to 20% before recharging as the car is meant for intra-city and nearby inter-city runs.

In January I hope to pen a owners review of the Volvo C40.

[V.Narayan]

The Pocket Rocket has completed 2000+ kms. I was somewhat out of action and travelling in Jan & Feb so mileage clocked dropped a bit. Transition to significantly new technology has been a bit of a challenge compensated by the absolutely superb driving attributes of the car.

I'll confess it is taking me longer to get used to the charging chore. I had installed a 15 amp line at my parking spot in 2013 when I occupied my current apartment. But it simply would not work. A few visits by Volvo and the building electrician revealed that the cable has deteriorated and needs replacement. So one more step to be accomplished to get to seamless and hopefully trouble free over night charging routine. Volvo as in Swede Auto and their local General Manager Vikas Chittauria have been most most helpful and co-operative.

While in theory you can go down to 20% and still keep the battery healthy I find myself getting antsy at 35% to 30%. So, the charging cycle is more commonly 90% discharged to 30% and then plugged in for kwh juice. In terms of kms that is ~300kms or so.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

While in theory you can go down to 20% and still keep the battery healthy I find myself getting antsy at 35% to 30%. So, the charging cycle is more commonly 90% discharged to 30% and then plugged in for kwh juice. In terms of kms that is ~300kms or so.

Thanks for the update. Have been waiting for your detailed review of this car. Hope it is already on the way. In the interim, do post some pictures here.

Must say you are getting very good efficiency figures for a car that is so powerful. With my Ioniq 5, my consumption has averaged 16.1 kWh / 100 km so far. Have set the peak charging level at 80%, recharge at about 20%, and typically run between 250 and 275 km in this interval.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Thanks for the update. Have been waiting for your detailed review of this car. Hope it is already on the way. In the interim, do post some pictures here.

Must say you are getting very good efficiency figures for a car that is so powerful. With my Ioniq 5, my consumption has averaged 16.1 kWh / 100 km so far. Have set the peak charging level at 80%, recharge at about 20%, and typically run between 250 and 275 km in this interval.

Thank you Hayek. Yes the detailed review is in the works. I'll put it out in April now as this month is rather over crowded for me. 16.1 kwh/100 kms is very good!! Hearty congratulations.

I hope you will be sharing a review of your Ioniq 5 soon.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Attachment 2578570

While in theory you can go down to 20% and still keep the battery healthy I find myself getting antsy at 35% to 30%. So, the charging cycle is more commonly 90% discharged to 30% and then plugged in for kwh juice. In terms of kms that is ~300kms or so.

Originally Posted by Hayek

Must say you are getting very good efficiency figures for a car that is so powerful. With my Ioniq 5, my consumption has averaged 16.1 kWh / 100 km so far. Have set the peak charging level at 80%, recharge at about 20%, and typically run between 250 and 275 km in this interval.

With the Nexon, it is a best practice to let the battery % go down into single digits every once in a while and then charge it back up to 100%. Triggers cell balancing.

I say this because is find 16-18kwh/100km quite high. My car, albeit half as powerful, does 100km in approx 12-14kwh. And I am usually in sport mode and do not baby it at all. In electrics, power consumption depends on load. If a 150hp motor and a 250hp motor are pulling an identical load, both will consume about the same amount of electricity (unlike ICE engine).

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I hope you will be sharing a review of your Ioniq 5 soon.

I have actually posted my review (My New Hyundai Ioniq 5 | Ownership Review | Going Electric). The link is here. But nowhere near as detailed as the ones you post of course.

The car is currently at over 5000 km. But an increasing share is now driven by my driver since it has turned into the family “taxi” for all journeys to the suburbs.

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

I say this because is find 16-18kwh/100km quite high. My car, albeit half as powerful, does 100km in approx 12-14kwh. And I am usually in sport mode and do not baby it at all.

Don’t you have a Nexon EV? Part of the difference could be the curb weight - 1400 kg for the Nexon and 1900 kg for the Ioniq 5. And of course, Bombay traffic probably leads to higher air conditioning load per km driven due to lower average speeds than in Delhi. Tried finding the suggested charging cycle - was not there in the manual but online sources suggested 20-80%.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

In electrics, power consumption depends on load. If a 150hp motor and a 250hp motor are pulling an identical load, both will consume about the same amount of electricity (unlike ICE engine).

This is an interesting point which I simply didn’t know. Is there some kind of a comparo illustration / diagram or youtube resource that you have, which explains it more? I hunted about in ‘Engineering Explained’ but couldn’t find it.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

This is an interesting point which I simply didn’t know. Is there some kind of a comparo illustration / diagram or Youtube resource that you have, which explains it more? I hunted about in ‘Engineering Explained’ but couldn’t find it.

This is a good way to visualise it. The losses in ICE dramatically increase with size, not so much with motors. However cost and weight of the motor are important considerations.

Motor (90% efficiency is very easy to achieve):


ICE - 1st loss is exhaust heat (tbhp logo covers it), heating the cabin comes for free with ICE :-)