Electric Vehicles: ‘No emission…just charge and drive around’

Here's the story of Ashwin Varkey, and IT engineer, who, last year, switched to an electric vehicle (EV) due to to the rising fuel prices, and the buzz around green mobility.

After driving a Ford Figo for six years, Ashwin Varkey decided to switch to an electric vehicle (EV), thanks to the rising fuel prices, and the buzz around green mobility.

Ashwin Varkey with his Tata Nexon EV.

“After six years, when it was time to change my car, I immediately decided to go for an EV because it has no emission, no piston, no noise, is very stable and more importantly, it doesn’t require the driver to queue up at fuel stations. So, I booked a Tata Nexon EV in June last year and got the delivery in a month.... Vehicle wise and even money-wise, it has been a good experience,” said Varkey, an IT engineer.

He bought the vehicle at ₹16.5 lakh, of which the dealer and the Delhi government said an amount of ₹1.5 lakh will be sent back to his bank account as incentive. “In a month’s time, the money was directly credited to my account,” he said.

Varkey said if his EV is charged at home, then the cost of driving the car is just ₹1/km. In a typical petrol vehicle, the cost comes to about ₹9/kmand for diesel, it is around ₹6/km. He said, if the public fast charging facilities are used, then the cost of driving an EV comes to ₹2/km. A single charge using the public fast charging bays would cost about ₹540 that would last about 4-5 days, depending on the car model and driving style, he said.

While domestic charging stations take nearly eight hours for a full charge, fast chargers do the job in under two hours. Batteries usually have an eight year life but the cost of a new one is high, with prices starting from ₹5 lakh.

“The car hardly requires any maintenance. Just charge and drive,” he said.

Lack of public charging infrastructure is another problem. “I took a risk and drove to Agra. By the grace of God, I reached within the single charge. In Agra, luckily one charging facility was there. Another time I went to Jaipur, and managed to somehow charge once on the way. The sad part is that often, when we approach the charging stations, now provided by many vendors, many are either not working or the software has glitches. Even Tata’s own stations are not fully commissioned. The government should ask all EV manufacturers to ensure charging stations in all their dealer showrooms and service centres too,” he said.

Compared to the number of EVs, only 1,640 public charging stations have been installed throughout the country. Of this, Delhi has about 200. “In all, if the battery gets drained, then the only option is to tow the car. I faced this in Mathura. I just hope that there is a connected app for all EV charging operators,” said Varkey.