Hi everyone! I have been an avid reader of Team BHP for the past 18 months. I am posted at Mumbai, and currently drive a Nexon EV XZ+(30kWh) which has completed 27 months and more than 20000 km on the odometer. I had booked the car due to the subsidy of 2.5 Lakh Rupees offered by Maharashtra government on purchase of EV, even though I didn't require a car at that time. Since the purchase of the car, I have done a few short trips to Lonavala, Alibaug, Mahabaleshwar, Nashik and Bhandardhara, the longest one being a 440km trip in Monsoon last year in a single day. I had contemplated writing down a travelogue many a times, but owing to laziness, never took an effort to pen down the memories.
A pic from the Bhandardhara Trip last Monsoon
Ever since the car was delivered, I had been eyeing a long trip in the car. As I have a 1.5 years old son, the plans of a long trip have been kept on hold keeping his and wife's comfort in mind. As luck would have it, in June this year, I was deputed on tour to Mundra in Gujarat and it seemed that the long trip dream was finally going to be fulfilled. The planning started and I went through the charging stations enroute via the Plugshare app. I filtered out the chargers that were available on the main route itself, so as to save time and avoid any deviations. I had also ensured that there were at least two chargers for backup near to the charging stations I was considering, in case a charger was not working. I had also confirmed the availability of the chargers a day before the trip on their respective apps. Initially, I had planned to do the entire trip of 900km in a single day, but later decided to do it with a halt in Ahmedabad since I was going solo.
The final itinerary was to charge at Vapi, then charge at Bharuch, take the DME to Vadodara and then via NE1 to Ahmedabad. After an overnight stay and slow charge, take a charging stop at Malia and then proceed to Mundra.
So I drove to my in laws residence and dropped my wife and son there. Plugged the car for an overnight slow charging session and woke up to the car fully charged to 100%. Wife and Mother-in-law had packed some lunch for the journey, and after having breakfast left from Mumbai at around 8:10 am in the morning on 17th of June, with Soc at 100%.
Took the Western Express Highway to later join the NH48. As it was a holiday on the occasion of Bakrid, I was fortunate as I didn’t encounter the dreadful traffic jam near Mira Road/Bhayandar, and I could cover the distance of 158 km in 2 hours and 50 minutes. A big portion of the stretch till Maharashtra border is being concretized, and due to that maintaining high speeds is not possible. Also, the quality of concrete road being laid is not great and the whole patch seemed uneven, even maintaining a speed of 75 was a daunting task. It was only after entering Gujarat, that I was able to stretch my legs and maintain decent speeds. The road surface was good and ride quality was smooth. However, a lot of trucks meant a lot of overtaking and cruise control was not effective.
Finally reached my first charging stop- Shanti Complex at Vapi at around 11 am, covering 157.9 kms with 31% battery left, at an average consumption of 130 Wh/km and 82 kms of range left, with AC on Econ mode at 24 degrees throughout. It is located on the NH48 itself, and has two charging guns with a total rating of 60kW from Chargezone. There are a few restaurants in the complex, while the washroom is just manageable. I had half of the packed lunch as I didn’t want to stuff too much, and later had a filter coffee at Moti Mahal Deluxe to recharge myselves. In the meanwhile, the car had charged to 91% in 50 minutes, and I decided to leave for the next stop.
Total units added and time taken- 16.124 units, 50 minutes.
Total Charging cost- 380 Rupees.
The next charging stop was at Hyatt Place, Bharuch. This stretch had a great surface again, and I was able to maintain good speeds throughout, except near Surat where there was a lot of truck movement. The ride quality was superb again and I was tempted to touch triple digits on a few occasions. Covered the distance of 175.9 kms in roughly 2.5 hours in one go. The SoC left was 14% with 31 kms of range left, and the average consumption was 130 Wh/km till now with AC on throughout. The Hotel has two charging guns from Statiq. After finishing the remaining food, I took a quick nap of 30 minutes inside the car itself, reclining the driver seat to the Max and switched on the AC while the car was charging. The objective was to charge the car to full 100% as the next leg was going to be approximately 190 km long. However, the car was taking painfully longer to charge after 90%, and I had to stop the charging which was stuck eternally at 96%.
Total units added and time taken- 24.461 units, 1 Hour 20 minutes.
Total Charging cost- 534 Rupees.
Charging at Hyatt Place, Bharuch