An Electrifying Month-my first electric road trip

One fine monsoon evening in 2022, I met some of my school friends for coffee. We had a great time chatting and reminiscing those nostalgic days from school. Time flew past and before we knew it, it was well past 10pm. One of my friends had bought an EV, a Tata Nexon EV. I was curious to see how different it was compared to an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car. We decided to go on a short ride. I drove it for a few 100m and realised that it was silent and smooth. Quite a big change from the little vibrations which every ICE car had while idling. My friend suggested that I tried the Sports mode for a short while. I did and it blew me away! That moment I decided, that my next car would be an EV!

The new kid in the house

The years ticked past. A random discussion with my father about his thought process while purchasing cars over the years ignited the thought process in my head to purchase a new car. And within a few weeks, I had done all my reading, online research etc. and had placed the order for my car, the Tata Punch.EV. I brought it home on 28 July 2025, a couple of days after what I had initially hoped for. And it was such a delight to drive. Smooth, silent, built to handle Mumbai's bumpy, roads. In the next couple of days I went on to explore the various tech features it came loaded with as I drove around the city. And then just as the weekend got underway, I headed off to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar(formerly Aurangabad) to celebrate my better half's birthday weekend. 

Igatpuri charging break

At the outset, the trip was different. It required planing. Lots of it. Unlike an ICE car where you can fill petrol or diesel quickly and easily almost anywhere, an EV needs to be charged. And that means finding a DC fast charger on the route, and not all chargers are made equal. Most chargers have their own app to control them, including making payments and starting/stopping the charging process. Since the app needs to work, one needs to have a smartphone with an active internet connection. We had planned two halts en route. Our first halt was at Igatpuri and our first preferred charger was not working. We then took some time to figure out how to operate the next one. There are apps like Plugshare which make the entire act of finding a charger much easier, with peer reviews, details about apps, etc. I found myself being a responsible EV owner with check-ins, and by sharing my own reviews, etc. It was a nice quick charge as we refuelled ourselves with lunch. The next halt was scheduled after another 100km, in order to ensure that we have ample charge as we neared our destination. Unfortunately, there was no power in the area and none of the chargers in the vicinity were operational. Thankfully we had another charging station which was a few kilometres further ahead. After a short struggle to figure out the system, we managed to charge the car to around 80% and drove uneventfully to our hotel. The hotel had a Tata power AC charger which we used to charge it overnight to almost 100%.

Sinnar charger plan B

There were a few important lessons along the way, mainly with regard to making a plan and also having a plan B. Chargers in the area not having power was not something we expected. The challenges faced with the following charger did induce quite a bit of stress. However, having a plan B of going towards Shirdi would have helped, considering that the temple town had many chargers in hotels, petrol pumps, etc. On the way back, we had a better plan in place with a charging station 40km from the start, an optional halt 120km further away and another halt at Igatpuri. The first one did not work, but the next one at Shirdi worked beautifully. 

The grocery halt

As a car charges, one may go around have meals or like I did in Shirdi, buy groceries for home. We halted again at Igatpuri at lunch time, topped up the battery and headed back home on the old Mumbai-Nashik Highway. It was such fun driving down the ghat! The regenerative braking system worked wonderfully and the energy consumption per kilometre till I got home stayed well below 100Wh/km. And this ladies and gentlemen was the first weekend with my car, the Tata Punch EV. A 700+km road trip costing just a little over Rs. 2 per kilometre!!

And this ladies and gentlemen has just been the beginning. I have absolutely loved using the Tata Punch.EV with all the changes in how an electric vehicle works, and the more I have driven it, the more my love has grown for it!!