A driver’s account: Why widespread EV adoption is still a distant dream

Tata Nexon EV Max (Image: nexonev.tatamotors.com)

It’s easy to see why the Tata Nexon electric vehicle is a popular choice for early adopters – it has the smoothness and urgency of what would be a far more expensive ICE, or internal combustion engine, vehicle with not a hint of the powertrain- related shortcomings of its own ICE counterparts at Tata Motors.

It is quick, spacious, economical and on the EV price spectrum, not unreasonably expensive. Unlike the Tigor EV, it actually packs significant enough range, so customers don’t mind paying the extra money because they are ultimately getting a product they can rely on.

So what happens after the customer has bought an EV, specifically a Tata customer? A wall box charger at home sorts out day-to-day commutes. Plug-in, go home and by daybreak, your EV is good for, at least, 150 km. And should you be in need of a quick top-up, Tata Power’s highly informative, quick-to-load EZ Charge app tells you about nearby fast chargers, which can sort things out for you.

This, as it turns out, is where the EV owner’s problems begin. Cars like the Nexon EV Max and the MG ZS have been launched with the promise of conquering the inter-city commute – a voyage that home-grown EVs are not quite prepared to make. So it stood to reason that we must test not

only the range capacity but the charging infrastructure on highways that connect major cities.

Armed with a Tata Nexon EV, I headed straight to Tata Motors’ dealership in Navi Mumbai where a 25kW fast charger awaited, providing a quick, full charge before our recently concluded “Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai on a single charge” experiment was to officially commence.

Outside the dealership was a lone charger with two nozzles – one for the Tata Nexon EV/EV Max, another for the Tigor EV. The unit is situated square outside one of the largest dealerships in Navi Mumbai, but owners are expected to be familiar with the app or have a card that can activate charging. You can pre-book a slot or a duration, but if you arrive late to the party like I did, carry a spy thriller paperback and settle in, because even getting a 50% charge on a 25kW charger can take up to an hour with the Nexon EV.

My first thought was why Tata Power, the subsidiary tasked with setting up a public charging network, had chosen to install the most meagre of fast chargers at a junction where Nexon EVs were swarming the dealership like stray puppies fixated on a lone pack of biscuits.

Several stopped, enquired about the remaining charge time, sighed and left. Our camera crew and I, not having that luxury, waited another 45 minutes before the unit was free, followed by another hour until the car had received a full charge (it only needed about 40%). Not ideal, if you’ve got an urgent meeting to attend in Pune, which would have no doubt concluded, with the attendees having broken for lunch by the time you power-up your EV. First reality check complete.

The Nexon EV Max’s 390-odd-km range felt reassuring. With a steady foot, this little range test seemed like a no-brainer. But the objective wasn’t just to see how well the EV performed. For EVs to truly function as a cars-for-all-occasions, one-car-garage solution, the public charging network needs to be in absolutely mint condition.

It certainly seemed to be when I pulled over at the HPCL pump right after the first toll gate on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The ChargeGrid kiosk had two 50kW chargers brimming with the promise of a quick charge, topping up your car in the time you gulped down a cup of tea. It also had a dedicated attendant who knew about the stations’ charging capacity, nozzle compatibility and had information about the app one could use to initiate the charging process (at a fee, of course). What he didn’t have, sadly, was ready access to electricity which had chosen that very moment to demonstrate its elusiveness.

Taking the charging station attendant at his word, I left the kiosk in the belief that this was a rare occurrence and that the station was at least functional. But the fact remained that this was a purely academic exercise for me and the camera crew, as the EV Max still had plenty of charge to take me to Pune and back. The standard Nexon EV next to me, however, didn’t benefit from the added range, and its owner had drained it of most of its charge through some spirited highway driving. Leaving him with an abundance of thoughts and prayers, I set off for the halfway point, which lay at the outer periphery of Pune.

Should you really be in need of a charge, the Tata Power EZ Charge app, along with the ChargeGrid app will pinpoint other fast chargers in your relative vicinity. Mine showed me a fast charger which took me considerably off-course, towards Lonavala. The app also informs you if you will need special authorisation to access these charging points since some could be found in private office compounds.

Not wanting to veer off the calculated route, I drove on to the Tata Motors dealership in Tathawade, Pune where, this time, the station was placed inside the showroom compound and was being used to charge another Nexon EV. So far, both my encounters with Tata Power chargers had proven to be encouraging.

Now heading back to Mumbai, there remained another public charger to be tested before hitting the home stretch. It was right opposite the one we had stopped by on the expressway, while on the way to Pune, this time at an Indian Oil petrol station. Except this one was unmanned, with three isolated charging units in an empty corner of the sprawling petrol pump.

This was the only one we’d come across which didn’t have a single EV being charged – never a good sign. I, along with the camera crew, immediately realised why. The two 50kW Exicom charging stations weren’t functional and, from the looks of it, hadn’t been functional for a while. The only reassuring sight here was a Tata Power-installed 30kW charging unit, so I wasted no time in topping up the Tata Power EZ Charge app with the requisite amount, selecting the station on the app and initiating charging. Or at least attempting to initiate it. A Tata Nexon EV owner had told me that Tata Power chargers were a “hit-or-miss” and those are lousy odds of success for pretty much anything, let alone power supply units that ensure you get home on time. The problem wasn’t that there was no power – that was thankfully a non-issue at the moment. The issue was that the app asked if the charging gun was plugged into the car. But when I did pull the charging gun out of its receptacle and inserted it into the car’s charging port, the app claimed that the device was being used by someone else and therefore, my vehicle would have to wait. Had there been an attendant operating the station I would have informed him that I was, in fact the person using the device and that in any case, neither I nor the mythical creature utilising the charging unit were receiving anything that remotely qualifies as electrical energy. In fact, I burnt several calories trying to negotiate with the EZ charge app so at the end, both I and the car had less energy than when we had gotten there.

Still, I had reclaimed roughly 30km of charge on the way back from Pune to Mumbai thanks to the many mountain slopes around which the Mumbai-Pune expressway has wrapped itself. With a little under 30% charge remaining, I sped away into the horizon confident that the charging unit at the Nerul Tata Motors dealership that had been used to fully charge the car in the morning awaited me. Arriving with a little over 15% battery power, I sighed with relief at finding the charging station empty. After the camera work was done for the day, I plugged the charging gun in, ready to head home after the car had obtained a much-needed and well-earned full charge.

Except now the Tata Power EZ Charge app informed me that another user had booked an hour-long charging slot 15 minutes from that very moment. Content with receiving 15 minutes of charge I attempted to commence charging, only to realise someone had turned the charging unit off. The dealership staff hadn’t bothered to check whether it was active. A rather confident Nexon EV owner’s driver pulled up next to the EV Max car, possessing the smugness of a man who had weathered many-a-public EV charging storm. He walked up and informed me that I won’t be able to commence charging because he had booked a slot. I told him that his charging session didn’t commence for the next five minutes, in which time I was still desperately trying to salvage some charge. The man stood by the charging unit, almost as if he shared a sentient bond with it that rookies like me couldn’t fathom.

Exasperated and eager to go home, I relinquished the charge, as it were, to him and began to search for attendees who could solve this puzzle. My range anxiety now extended to my phone as well, because while the Nexon EV Max performed splendidly, its wireless charging dock offered about as much juice as a quartz-powered Casio from 1986.

Flash forward 10 minutes later, I had exhausted all options and decided to leave the car in the custody of the dealership that could at least connect it to an AC charger inside where it would be parked overnight.

My only small victory was in finding the same Nexon EV driver explaining to his employer over a harrowing phone call that the charger wasn’t in fact working. Too tired to care, I hopped into the Network18 camera crew van and went home, my views on private EV ownership now permanently altered.