1000km drive in an Atto 3: My learnings using various charging options

Destination charging is one of the most practically useful infra to be developed in many many hotels in cities and tourist destinations.

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Had a chance to drive BYD Atto 3 from Tirupur-Chennai-Tirupur for around 1000kms. Started with 100% at home and reached Vellore with 9%, The suspension was very good even at highway speeds. Acceleration and regen refinement was very good. Enjoyed the drive, even though the seating was not comfortable for my height for more than 5hrs drive. True range for me was even though 360 kms for full charge.

Charging at 360kw charger:

Chargezone has an excellent 360kw charger setup with 6 dispensers. Plugged in with 9% SOC, initially it was charging with 83kw charging speed, after 30% SOC it was charging at 49kw. Charged upto 66%. While I was charging there came a Volvo truck and it started charging at 233kw charging speed.

Destination charging:

Reached Chennai with 14%. Hotel did not have any type 2 charger and they even did not give me even 16amps socket to charge overnight. Reached late night so did not had time to argue and get 16 amps socket. Next day morning I had a function to attend in Hotel Leela place, there was a type2 charger available and the car was full when I left the hotel at evening. Destination charging is one of the most practically useful infra to be developed in many many hotels in cities and tourist destinations.

Highway charging:

Chennai to my home is 500kms and I just stopped 20 minutes for breakfast at Zeon Tindivanam and another 20 minutes for lunch at Zeon Sangagiri. No extra time taken for charging. With highway charging in southern part of India there is no extra time waste because of Atto 3 charging speed.

Selecting charger:

At Sangagiri there was Nexon prime charging in 50kw charger (Eventhough prime’s charging speed is 21kw maximum in DC and I was forced to use one of the gun in 60kw dual gun charger. Once I initiated the charge another MG ZS came and plugged in with another gun and we got 30kw for each cars. If Nexon prime would have selected one of the gun in 60kw dual gun I could have charged in 50kw charger and used full charging speed. Anyhow I just needed a small top-up until I finished my lunch.

One interesting fact about the MG ZS guy was he had driven 1,60,000+ kms in just over 2 years. Felt OMG.

Once EV always EV

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