How practical is an electric car? Can you take one on a cross-country drive? Or, are they slaves to a plug near you? Can you get stuck in the middle of nowhere with a flat battery? Or, is the charging infrastructure good enough to get you home?
These aren’t just questions but serious fears nagging EV buyers, so we thought the best way to answer them once and for all was by undertaking the mother of all drives—a road trip in an all-electric car from Kashmir to Kanyakumari (K2K). And it wasn’t just any electric car but one that sits at the pointy end of the market—the sensational Porsche Taycan.
Liftto the rescue
To venture on a 4,400 km road trip from the northern end of India to the southern tip in a low slung sports car or an EV is very brave (or foolhardy) and here we are attempting to do it in a car that is both! But this isn’t a flat-out, record-breaking drive. It’s a relatively comfortable trip with lots of stops built into the itinerary for charging.
The start in Srinagar doesn’t go off well. We’ve been told landslides have washed away a section of the highway to Jammu, so the team has to cool its heels for a day, but when you’re stuck in a place surrounded by mountainous beauty, no one complains.
The first day from Srinagar to Jammu is the most challenging of all on the K2K. Military movement stops traffic for long spells and when you get going, you have to tackle roads destroyed by landslides. The suspension lift system in our Taycan proves to be a lifesaver on bad roads. All it takes is the press of a button for it to raise the car’s height sufficiently to help us traverse potholes, craters and the gigantic speed breakers that dot our highways.
Just when we think the worst is behind us, the heavens open up as we approach Chandigarh, and within minutes a calm highway is transformed into a chaotic river threatening to submerge the Taycan. But it’s in this fender-deep water that a couple of misconceptions about EVs are laid to rest. For one, the chances of getting stuck in floods in an EV are lower than in a car with a regular engine, which is vulnerable to water being sucked through the air intakes—which can potentially destroy the engine. And no, none of us in the Taycan got electrocuted!
Battery blues
From then on, the drive is relatively uneventful, the ensuing days’ proceedings dominated by the state of charge in the battery, where to charge and how long to charge. Passing petrol pump after pump on the highway, I must admit I do miss peeling into one, just to be reminded of the sheer ease of refuelling. But, to be honest, charging the Taycan a total of 19 times on our journey from north to south isn’t as inconvenient as I thought. There is already a good network of chargers every 300 km or so, so range anxiety is not the issue. What we experience instead is ‘wait’ anxiety. Most public fast chargers are 25kW capacity, which isn’t very fast, and to replenish the Taycan’s big 79.2kWh battery takes time and patience. In Mumbai, for example, to charge from 13 per cent to 100 per cent takes three and a half hours! And to put the charging time in perspective, out of the 18 days it takes for us to complete the drive, one day and 19 hours go in just charging time.
On the flip side, the total charging cost is ₹15,421 which is unbelievably cheap for a high-performance car like the Taycan. If we use slower home chargers, the cost would be even less.
The future is here
The final leg to Kanyakumari is pretty straightforward and reassuring, thanks to a denser charging network in the south. Zeon’s 50kW fast chargers ensure that we can replenish the battery quickly without wasting too much time.
The Taycan reaches the southern-most point of mainland India on a busy Sunday evening. The crowds are curious and can’t believe that we drove over 4,400 km without using a drop of petrol. The Taycan, too, didn’t give a jot of trouble and performed brilliantly come rain or shine.
Yes, EVs are here and what this drive has proved is that they are no longer the future, but the present.
The views expressed by the columnist are personal
From HT Brunch, October 1, 2022
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