Tata Punch EV: How I managed to extract the maximum range possible

My real world range with the Punch EV seems to be about 300 km with the AC on.

BHPian Roadeo recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I recently bought a Tata Punch EV. I used to drive a Creta IVT and a Grand i10 (stick) before getting this and I loved hypermiling on both those vehicles. I used to get an average of 18km/l on my Creta during my office commute (around 55KMs from my home to Kochi) and close to 20km/l on the i10 consistently.

This being my first EV I was really excited to try to hypermile on this vehicle cause of the regenerative braking. I've done about 1500KMs on this vehicle in about 2 weeks and I have to say from what I've read about efficiency figures on this forum and elsewhere, the Punch EV seems to be really fuel efficient.

Disclaimer: I'm not sure how much I can trust the data from the Tata Z-Connect app but I'm not sure of any other methods to test my real world power usage.

The attached screenshots are from drives with the AC on at around 23 degrees. Quick summary of the efficiency numbers over these past 2 weeks.

• Hypermiling: ~80Wh/KM (Close to 70Wh/KM is definitely possible. Even more with A/C off)
• Normal driving: ~100Wh/KM
• Sports mode / Driving to enjoy the sheer acceleration of this car: ~120Wh/KM

Me being a really defensive driver most of my daily driving could be categorized as hypermiling.

If it's any use to anyone, my tips to hypermile on an EV would be these:

1. Safety first. Don't ever sacrifice your control over the car or your safety for hypermiling.
2. Above all, try to conserve the car's momentum. Regenerative braking is nice, but the best way to increase your fuel efficiency is to make sure any energy you've used up accelerating the car is not quickly wasted by slowing the car back down.
3. One pedal driving. This means using regenerative braking to slow down as much as possible without using the brakes. I've build up muscle memory over these past few weeks of driving to change regen levels depending on what's coming up in front of me. I usually start with level 1 and then to level 2 and 3 depending on how much I think I will need to slow down.
4. Slower acceleration. I believe this applies to ICE vehicles too. The one thing I believe which can make the most difference in fuel efficiency in any vehicle is to make sure you don't accelerate (especially from a complete stop) too hard. I've seem my fuel efficiency numbers go way down whenever I do this in my Creta and i10. Always press down the accelerator just enough to make sure you're not slowing down everyone else around you.
5. A tip one of my uncles told me to be a better driver is to imagine the Prime Minister sitting in the back seat of a car with a cup of coffee in one hand and a newspaper in the other, and you're the one driving. How would you drive in this situation?

In summary, I really like this car. If driving a manual is fun cause I get to change gears, driving an EV is fun cause I get to see how fuel efficient I can go. My real world range with the Punch EV seems to be about 300KMs with the AC on. Besides a few software issues (which the service center guy said would be fixed with a software update **fingers crossed**) I've faced no other major issues with this car till now.

Happy to answer any questions about the Punch EV

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.