Can you take an #EV on a long road trip? Well, of course, you can! But how convenient/comfortable/logical is it to drive a high-end electric SUV long distance with virtually no EV infra around? That's what we're here to answer today with the @JaguarIndia #Ipace.
Truth be told, we're trying our best not to...but then this thing does reach take-off speeds pretty quickly! @JaguarIndia
We're doing Delhi-Chandigarh today, which is claimed to be the country's first EV-friendly highway, featuring solar-powered charging stations at multiple locations. Right now, we're at Karna Lake EV charging station, which is the midpoint of the journey.
As you'd expect in India, the alloted parking space for charging EVs is already full...with diesel cars. 😕
And we have another car that's blocking the parking space, this time at a different location (Oasis Resort). Diesel car again, btw. They must hate EVs...😅
After 6 hours, we only managed to make it half way! Reason? Turns out most charging stations work only on paper, ground reality a little different. None of the @BHEL_India installed fast chargers (50kW) worked for us today, meaning a good 40-45 min were wasted doing nothing!
When we started, the onboard computer showed a range of 406km. After 196km, it dropped to 144km. Meaning around 60km of range was lost because of spirited driving, idling, sitting in traffic, air-conditioning (range indicator goes down by 25-30km when you turn the ac on!).
.@TataPower saved the day, thankfully. Found a 25kW CCS2 charger at a @TataMotors dealership in Kurukshetra. 30 min charging enough to juice up the battery by 11kWh (+50km approx.). Should be enough to reach Chandigarh. Fingers crossed.
And that's it for today. Total distance covered - 326km. 69km still left in reserve. A bit off from the claimed figure (470km), but a drop in range is a given in real world.
As for the @JaguarIndia #IPace, well, we can't sing enough praises, really. It was awesome when we drove it over short distances, but it's mind-blowing when you spend more time with it. More on this in our Oct issue.
If you're curious about the 'fuel' costs for this journey. Here's some info: #TataPower charged us around ₹18/kWh. Based on our calculations, 1kWh returned 4km of range, meaning it cost us ₹4.5/km. Remember this is a car with 395bhp & does 0-100km/h in 5 seconds. Not bad then!
Time to head back, but you can't just get up & go with an EV. Charging the iPace at @JaguarIndia Chandigarh dealership right now. 25kW DC charger will take around 4 hours for 100% charge. Hopefully, that should be enough to make it back to Delhi.
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