1500 KM LONG EV ROAD TRIP & SPENT JUST RS. 700

HOW I WENT ON A

 Aakash, an electronics engineer based out of Jaipur, along with his wife, embarked on a 1500 km round trip to Longewala from Jaipur.

What’s so special? The duo completed the four-day trip in their Tata Nexon electric vehicle (EV) which had a premium battery range of 312 km.

On Christmas morning in 2020, they set out on a road expedition, which took them through Pushkar, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

Here’s how Aakash managed the four-day rendezvous (and how you can too).

“Charging the vehicle is crucial,” says Aakash. For this purpose, he built an extension cable and attached it to an electricity meter.

Pro tip: Aakash suggests charging the EV when the battery hits 15 per cent. “It then requires just 8 hours for a full charge,” he says.

In a worst-case scenario where you are stuck on a highway without charge, towing is the solution. Aakash says, “For every 1 km, the vehicle is towed, you approximately gain 1.1 per cent charge and every 1 per cent charge gives you a range of 2.5 km.”

The next thing to note is proper earthing for the vehicle.  As a lot of the hotels and establishments do not have this, he carried a kit that includes an iron rod that he can pitch into the ground and connect a wire to. This creates earthing, and then this wire is connected to the vehicle charger.

You can also adjust your driving pattern to gain more range. “If you’re driving at 80 kmph, you get a range of 200-220 km. But you can always start driving 40 kmph, and this will increase your range to over 300 km,” he notes.

The trip was a great one for the couple not only in terms of the scenic views but also in terms of savings. You can read more about the trip here.

Aakash says that if they took the same trip in an IC-engine vehicle with a mileage of 15 km per lt, they would require approximately 100 lt of petrol to cover the 1500 km round trip. This would cost them Rs 9,000 assuming the price of petrol to be Rs 90/lt. However, their fuel costs for the trip amounted to Rs 700 to Rs 800 in the EV.

This engineer has also developed an EV travel charging kit.

Click here to read on for more details.