Have been waiting for a long-range EV for 4 years. Wanted one that can give an average range of 450km and above. My long drives are generally for around 500-600 per day

BHPian rajeshchand recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Took delivery of XEV9E 79 KW pack 2 Ruby Velvet on 22nd September.

Decided to do Delhi-Guwahati for puja holidays. Flight tickets were ranging around 80k to 1lakh for family of 4. Though it was lingering in our mind but decided on driving down after seeing the flight fares.

Planned out the charging stops since we were to travel 3 states UP Bihar and Bengal before reaching Guwahati.

We were 4 traveller’s and huge amount of luggage even occupying the frunk. So range was not something that I was worried about as I was aware that I will need to do top ups many times since I will be extracting very less range due to the weight the car was going to carry. Charging stops and other details:

First top up Agra Club Mahindra -20% (from 57%)
Second stop Lucknow lulu mall -100 % (from 8%)
Third stop Azamgarh – 100% (from 35%)
Fourth stop Patna – 100% (from 41%)
Fifth stop Purnea – 84% (from 51%)
Sixth stop Siliguri – 100% (from 34%)
7th stop Madarihat – 11% top up (it was a bio break but tested the charger at IOCL pump)
8th stop Bongaigaon – 97% (from 52%)
Reached Guwahati with 56% SOC.

Agra, Azamgarh, Purnea and Madarihat were exclusive charging stops and rest were night stays. Purnea and Madarihat were exclusive charging stops while Agra and Azamgarh were during breakfast/lunch breaks.

I was driving it like an ICE car, never thought about hypermiling since I had enough charging stops planned out. On Delhi-Agra-Lucknow expressway I was keeping the speed at 90-100kmph. On Purvanchal kept the speed between 100-120 and mostly above 110 as speed limit here was 120.

Car is very much planted on road and this sometimes lead to speeding as you dont feel the speed probably due to the softer suspension and lack of noise.

Total cost of charging was 6.4k which includes the balance SOC at Guwahati (Haven’t counted the initial 100% charge at home for cost calculation).

Now about charging infrastructure, Statiq and Tata Power are reliable once their app shows the charger is online however Adani even after the app shows the charger is online still it wouldn’t work. After I called Adani customer care few times and reported I found they have moved the chargers offline.

At Siliguri the charging point was of Chargezone but listed on Statiq and at Purnea the charger was by BPCL but listed on Statiq, so charging was a breeze with Statiq app

During the journey I relied mostly on Plugshare, Statiq and Tata Power apps to plan and charge. They were reliable and never disappointed.

All through the roads were good except for the final stretch from Hasimara to Guwahati where the undulations between road and bridges are quite unnerving as I could feel the suspension reaching it’s max limit, so one has to slow down before entering and exiting the bridges.

Lane keep assist was a boon on expressway reducing the driver fatigue to quite an extent. Encountered a 3 hour traffic jam before Purnea, we just kept the AC on and slept without worrying about fuel expenses or carbon monoxide.

While going back to Delhi I would document the travel better with photographs of arrival and departure SOC.

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