6 months of owning an EV in India ๐ฎ๐ณ
The Nexon EV is the future of personal vehicles in India, excited to be a user
Today I complete 6 months of owning an EV in India ๐ฎ๐ณ
If you have been on the fence about whether you should buy it or not, the answer is very simple (Do It)
In fact, the Income Tax Act incentive on buying it expires on 31st March, 2023
Here's a small breakdown โคต๏ธ
โณ๏ธ Background
It all started two and a half years back when Tata Motors started offering Nexon EV for test drives.
I was in the middle of buying my first car, and as a part of doing channel checks on new models and cars, I was able to get my hands on one.
Driving the EV was like a completely different experience. I have had the privilege to drive multiple cars - sedan & SUV of 4-5 OEM's in Golf Course Road in Gurgaon for 3 years - but this just hit different.
It was as if you're in the middle of something futuristic.
I ended up buying an ICE vehicle, Grandi10 Nios to be precise and to monitor the per km cost & fuel intake, I also maintained an excel sheet.
(Did not know I will write an article some day, but the data does come in handy)
The average mileage was 11kmpl and my average cost/km was INR 9
The petrol price from 1st tank fill moved 21% to my last tank fill with the peak being at almost 32% ๐คฏ
A small chart to drive home the point.
Since my car usage was almost 60-70kms a day, I was almost spending 150% of my car ownership cost at the petrol pump every month.
During this time, I had also managed to convince dad about the unit economics of an EV and how it will potentially change the auto landscape.
๐ Cut to August, '22, we finally got the chance to lay our hands on a Nexon EV. More than me, my dad was excited to be a part of the EV revolution and sit next to me on our drives when we enjoyed listening to old classical retro music.
This was also one of the last 'milestone' thing I could do with my father ๐
More than the music, a lot of times on an empty road, the Sports Mode would truly make us feel we are sitting in a sports car. For anyone who has never tried it, I would highly recommend taking a test drive - It is exhilarating.
Ok, so let's get down to the basics.
The Nexon EV would cost you anywhere between 15-18 lakhs on road, depending on the variant you go for.
People often tend to get anchored on this number and say - 'it is high' and 'expensive' but that is not even the tip of the problem.
Indians are smart - in fact probably the most frugal people on the planet. For the longest time when diesel prices would lag petrol prices, diesel car sales in India had actually tipped petrol car sales. A similar inflection point of ICE vs. EV is evolving now as we speak.
First of all, there is a 8 year / 160,000 km guarantee on the battery and motor by Tata on Nexon EV. It is round about similar for other OEMs and in a similar range.
If your per km differential is INR 10, that is a 16 lakh guarantee assuming you drive 20,000 km a year.
This is almost a 80-100% guarantee on your initial purchase price on the vehicle. Now, how do you reach this differential?
f you are someone switching from a similar sized ICE SUV, it is 12-15/km, for a luxury car 25-30/km. The more you drive, faster is the payback.
To add to it, there are literally no servicing costs - my car has driven ~14,000 km in 6 months (as I mentioned, my daily usage is in the range of 60-70 km/day) and has already gone for 2 servicing. Still early days, but I expect no surprises.
Charging & Range Anxiety
While the claimed range is 312km on full charge, in a city drive with your AC on, the range expectation is typically 200km on one full charge. How do you charge the car? - Tata Power
The moment you buy an EV, Tata Power comes in and sets a charging station for you for free!
They get the charger connected to your electricity meter and the consumption gets added to your respective monthly bill - irrespective of which service provider you have.
Currently there are a range of charging options available, we opted for the regular slow charger, takes about 7-8 hours for 1 full charge. Everything can be monitored through their Z-Connect mobile app. Must be the same across all OEMs.
If you are someone who has to commute more than 70-80km on 1 side, you need to ensure there is a charging option available in your destination. This can be something as simple as a 15 ampere socket or if you are commuting to your office/factory, consider having a charger.
For instance, I once took the car on the highway for a spin, the speed was capped at 120 kmph (default setting) - still haven't been able to figure out if the same can be disabled. And, there was bad traffic where I had to end up waiting for 3 hours, battery decayed fast.
Tax Incentive?
If you take on car loan, Section 80EEB gives you a deduction on the interest upto 1.5 lakhs a year. The condition being - the loan has to be sanctioned by 31st March, 2023. If you have been on the fence, this could be a good time to consider switching.
Hits
Great Drive Experience
No time / money wasted driving to petrol pumps
No sound
Green Number Plate gets flexed inadvertently at some places (have got VIP treatment inadvertently by folks thinking it is some diplomatic car)
Misses
Range is a little low (enhanced in Max variant)
Unexpected increase in travel - beyond 150/160km in a day may not happen, especially if you forget to charge or are working with low charge (Happened with me once in the last 6 months)
Misinformation
I have seen a lot of under researched, highly opinionated and also maybe agenda driven outlets all over social media and on youtube spreading all sorts of myths - The battery can blast, technology is untested, reliability is low etc.
Finally, a few months back, there was piece covered on Mint which tried to do an objective comparison, but the math was way off. I had reached out to the editor raising my concerns who also made updates on the story, but the comparison felt incomplete.
Link to the article - Click here
One can play around with the servicing costs, tax incentives (which are + on the EV), but on a 8 year lifecycle with a 20,000 km a year usage, the math is actually very simple. One can construe the guarantee as savings in petrol cost.
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