After Noida to Jaipur, it was time to take my EV out again, this time to Dehradun. Armed with the learnings from my first road trip, I felt more confident.
I knew what to watch out for to avoid draining the battery too quickly. Plus, I had money lying unused in multiple charging apps from my Jaipur trip, so I was hopeful I wouldn’t need to download yet another app on this journey. We started at 99 per cent, punched in the location and hit the road. Since we had begun early, we planned a breakfast stop at Highway King near Haridwar. By the time we reached, the battery had dropped to 55 per cent, not bad at all. And luckily, there was an EV charging station right there at the petrol pump, with multiple chargers offering different kW options. But there was a catch. It was a brand-new charging station, which meant a brand-new app, EcoPlug. So once again, I downloaded the app, loaded money into the wallet and only then could we start charging. While the car charged, we had breakfast. Thirty-five minutes later, we were back on the road with the battery at 100 per cent. Driving through Haridwar, sprinting wasn’t really an option so we cruised at 70–80 kmph. I was confident now that we would reach Dehradun without needing another charge and we did. Our hotel was on the Dehradun–Mussoorie road and conveniently the neighbouring Fairfield had an EV charger. When we reached, however, both charging points were occupied by hotel guests. Since there was no telling when they would be free, we decided to step out for lunch at a nearby café and asked the staff to call us once the cars were done charging. Fairfield uses ChargeZone. While this station did show up on the EcoPlug app, charging wasn’t possible without downloading the ChargeZone app separately and adding money to that wallet as well. Another app, another top-up. Once the car was fully charged, we drove up to the hills to soak in the views. But seeing the overwhelming traffic towards Mussoorie, we decided to stay back in Dehradun and explore some of its newer cafés instead. With ample charge left, the plan was simple - plug the car in again at a nearby charging station the next morning. That’s when things got frustrating. The next morning, both charging points were occupied and this time, the car owners or drivers were nowhere to be seen. We waited for 20 minutes, then started scouting for another charger. We did find one nearby, but of course, it belonged to yet another service provider. Enters Tata’s charging app. This one turned out to be the most difficult of them all. It required my Apple Watch settings to be changed to a 24-hour format before I could even proceed. There was no one at the station to help, so I called customer care and spent nearly 20 minutes on the phone before finally getting the charging started.
What we need
The reason I am documenting all this isn’t to discourage people from using EVs, in fact, it’s the opposite. If EVs are the answer to curbing our growing pollution crisis, then the infrastructure has to become more user-friendly.
A petrol car trip from Noida to Dehradun and back would have cost us at least ₹8,000. With the EV, we managed it under ₹2,000, which is a massive saving. But that saving came at the cost of time, patience and phone storage. We spent hours searching for charging stations, downloading new apps, adding money to multiple wallets and then letting that money sit there, hoping we would encounter the same service provider again on a future trip.
So what’s the real need? A centralised charging app that lets EV users charge anywhere, without the hassle of juggling 8–10 different apps. Right now, my phone has Statiq, Electreefy, Indian Oil’s EV charging app, EcoPlug, ChargeZone, Tata and the list keeps growing. There’s also a pressing need for higher-voltage fast-charging stations on highways, so travellers aren’t forced to build their itineraries around charging stops.
EVs are the future but for them to truly work for people, the experience needs to be as seamless as filling up a petrol tank even if it means spending a little longer than a petrol/diesel refill.
