Tata Punch.ev: Charging costs & trip report after a 450 km drive

By the time I was 6 kms away from home the charge dropped below 10%, range shown was 25kms and the car went into limp mode.

BHPian mh09ad5578 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Did the Bangalore trip yesterday. Started at 8.30 am with full home charging (Slow charge) at 100% range shown was 250kms, set the trip meter a bit late and it recorded 390 km but actually did about 450-460 km. It showed a 136 Wh/Km reading as per the trip meter.
On the way to Bangalore maintained a speed of 80-85 Kmph with the most use of cruise control till Tumkur. Reached T begur Paakshala at 10.10 am and put it on Zeon fast charger with 33% charge left. After finishing breakfast saw that there was a power failure and the car had charged to only 69% in 30 minutes, proceeding with the shown 170kms range. The cost here was Rs303/-.In Bangalore after finishing some work went to Lulu Mall where they had a Rebolt charger. Put the car on charge for 45 mins and it went from 45% to 90%. Was charged 408Rs- for it. Left the mall at 6 pm towards Chitradruga and it was raining quite heavily. Mainted a speed of 90-100 kmph on the way back. The range shown was 20 km more than the Google Maps distance so had decided to top it up at Nanjundeshwara Hotel near Tumkur. This has a Zeon charger but it showed some error and didn't charge.

By the time we reached Sira, Javagondanhalli Fast charger the range difference was 40 km so decided to wing it home. By the time I was 6 km away from home the charge dropped below 10%, the range shown was 25kms and car went into limp mode. The Accelerator was wooden and the speed was capped at 60kmph and the cruise stopped working and constant alarms. By the time I reached home charge was at 6%. Some observations-

• Going towards Bangalore range drop was more than km s covered as was moving higher. While returning Range drop was lower than the km covered as we were coming down in elevation.
• Driving at 85kmph on cruise control is very boring and patience-testing.
• Fast charging might work perfectly or worse depending on your luck, but when it works it is as easy as an ice fuel up albeit with more time, if you have spare work/activity to do you won't notice the charge wait times.
• The car is amazing to drive in bumper-to-bumper city traffic. Lane assists,360 cameras, ventilated seats, auto hold, small dimensions, and upright seating are all a great boon. I may be biased as this is my first automatic.
• The range drop from 15% to 10% was very fast like in a blink of an eye. Need to check this more.
• Better charge the car before it reaches 10% last 25kms for a fuss-free drive.
• Google Maps integration into the dash is amazing.
• Wireless Android though great to use drains the phone battery pretty fast and though had kept the phone on a wireless charger through the journey it was unable to charge it above 70%. The phone was a Samsung S23 Ultra. Have decided to disable Android Auto and stick to Bluetooth due to this.
• Had a stone hit on the windshield in the rains and it cracked. First damage in 4days already.

The approximate cost for the 450kms drive was less than 950Rs. The best bang for the buck is home charging and the best fuss range to hit is within 175-200kms. Rest depends on charging infrastructure and more important if it is working at the time you are there.

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