820 km drive in my Tata Punch EV: Driving experience, charging options

Total Charging cost including home charging was about Rs. 2.10 a kilometer.

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820km trip with Punch EV LR

After Buying Punch EV I was longing for a trip but was waiting for the monsoon to set so I planned it towards the end of June. Before the journey was apprehensive to start without a Spare tire as was going to interior Maharashtra where Roads were bad at some places hence bought a 16-inch Tata Altroz Rim and a tire as suggested by one of the members and it fitted within wheel well space.

Day 1 Mumbai to Pawna 120Km

Started at 98% SOC from Mumbai and reached Kumar resort, Lonavala at 57% SOC Since Lonavala is at a high ground 87km distance took 40% charge with AC on. Took a lunch break and simultaneously charged the car up to 96% at 60kw JIO BP charger opposite Kumar resort, charging was done without any issue. Stayed at Pawna, the resort had a statiq 7.6kw slow charger however could not charge with APP or card hence resort staff did it from their end without charges. Drove 55km for sightseeing in the Pawna area the next day.

Day 3 Pawna to Koyna Nagar 275km

Started the journey towards Satara with 100% SOC. Instead of taking the usual Mumbai-Pune Expressway took the internal scenic route to reach Pune outskirts and reached Wai with 54% SOC. The lunch break was at Hotel Sai Park Inn, The food at the restaurant was just ok but decided to align with car charging as it had a 60kw charge Zone charger.

Charging failed to start in spite of repeated attempts and hotel staff had no idea so called Charge zone. after a delay of 15-20 min charging started but when checked after lunch, charging had stopped midway at 69% SOC hence decided not to waste time and continued towards Satara. The plan was to charge 100% before taking the interior road towards Koyna Nagar as no charging facility was available on the entire 90km stretch from Umbraj up to Chiplun but missed the TATA power charging station hence decided to charge at the E-fill charging station during the the Tea break however the charger was of 15kw hence 15% charging also took time. Thus, decided to go towards BPCL Karad which had a 60kw charger. When reached saw that they were laying paver blocks and the area was dug up & rains had made the area muddy near the charger hence couldn't charge so continued towards the resort and reached 43% SOC. efficiency was at 105wh/km.

Day 5 Koyna Nagar to Mumbai 345km

Local sightseeing took 8% of the charge the previous day so started towards Mumbai with 35% SOC. While doing breakfast at the riverside inn, Koyna Nagar I saw a 25kw Tata Power charger installed so was happy however with utter dismay manager said that TATA Power is not activating the charger for last two years in spite of their repeated request and asked me to write to Tata Power as well

It was raining and single lane state highway with craters ensured driving was at a slow pace, I was skeptical about reaching the next charger which was 75km & 1 hour and 30 minutes away hence switched off the AC and reached Amrai Resort TATA Charging station, Shendre Satara with 11% SOC. The good part about this location is it has four 60kw Charge Zone chargers and two 25kw TATA Power Chargers. They also have another charger for two-wheelers. I tried with a 60kw charger but Charging was not initiating so sought help from resort staff who called Charge Zone and restarted the chargers even after 25-30 minutes and a couple of restarts it was still not active hence moved to the TATA power charger which started instantly. After lunch waited for another 20 minutes to charge the car up to 82% SOC. The weather was good so continued the journey without AC. Reached BPCL Varve COCO pump, it has four 60kw chargers & charging was smooth. Charged up to 95% and reached Mumbai with 40% SOC. Energy efficiency was achieved at 76.9% for the entire 345km trip and the downward journey improved the regen.

About the car

Driving Punch EV is fun and being fully loaded, features are useful, Sufficient power in city mode and ample power in sport mode helps when you want to overtake quickly on the highway. 300km range is doable on a single charge. entire 820km was done with 90wh/km with 55% AC use on a road which had ghats, traffic jams & craters was beyond expectation. Total Charging cost including home charging was about Rs. 2.10 a kilometer. The car is ok till now except if you switch off the AC while the car is ON, the AC won't be ON again until you restart the car so need to visit the service Centre for that. Passenger seats are not comfortable for people with 6ft above height & heavy body frame for long journeys if four adults travel together.

About charging Infra

Charging Infra is good up to Mumbai- Belagavi (Mumbai- Bangalore Highway) however downloading multiple charging apps and maintaining balances is a hassle where the mobile network is not good, I have about 9 apps for Vehicle charging. Also observed Links were down at most times causing delay in charging. BPCL has many chargers installed but apps like plug share don't show all of them you need to check internal apps which again is time-consuming. JIO BP chargers are by far the best and cheapest as well. charging Infra in interior areas of Maharashtra is still bad, you can do a slow charge at a few hotels however need to stay for a night and frequent power cuts may hamper your charging. In all even if you plan well still you will be spending approx. 1 hour extra for a 350km trip even if you combine charging with breaks.

Some random pictures from the trip

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