The Epic EV Roadtrip!
We drive from New Delhi to South India
This was our most epic trip yet. Delhi to Bengaluru, then further South to Varkala in Kerala, then back up to Delhi through Hyderabad and Nagpur.
I was joined by Garvit during this trip. Along the way, we met many from our EV community, those from the industry and many like us, just aficionados exploring the country through EVs.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll publish our observations and notes from the trip. Including this introduction, we’ll be publishing six parts. Stay tuned!
Are EV Road Trips easy?
In the initial weeks, we’ll publish the ‘Road Trip’ articles, a general account of how we went from Point A to Point B: the roads we took, the sights we saw, the places we halted.
The point of these articles is to bust an important myth among petrol heads who think that EVs may be viable in cities, which have established charging infrastructure, and are not meant for the chaos and scarcity of the great Indian outdoors. The point of these articles is to show you the ease by which a 6,300-km trip can be done with an electric vehicle. Only minimal planning was required.
Was there range anxiety? In parts, of course. But who hasn’t driven an internal combustion car with one eye on the fuel tank needle pushing at ‘Reserve’ and another eye on the map showing the distance to the nearest petrol bunk.
Did frequent charging an EV make the trip longer than filling up fuel in a car? Marginally yes. We show how you can incorporate charging during your normal pitstops (breakfast, lunch, chai and so on) on such a long journey.
Importantly, we show you how these minor inconveniences make for big savings. Assuming MG’s calculation of 140gm of Carbon Dioxide emissions saved per kilometer, our 6,300km trip saved nearly 900kg of carbon dioxide when compared to a conventional petrol car.
It’s not just an environmental savings, but a financial one too. By our calculations, we spent INR 16,231 (USD 180) on fuel, or around INR 2.6/km (USD 0.03/km). A conventional fossil fuel-run SUV vehicle runs at around INR 6.5/km (USD 0.07/km), with the tip costing INR 41,000 (USD 453) just for fuel. That is a savings of around 150%.
Hopefully, it’ll make you consider a shift!
For those who already own an EV vehicle, these articles will hopefully give you the confidence and means to plan your own road trip.
Thoughts for the EV heads
We’ve realised there is great interest building up to learn about the world of EVs. It’s no longer just EV industry people who want to figure out the market. It’s also hobbyists and motorists who are interested in the amps and volts and everything technical.
We’ll publish articles from the trip and our previous learnings for those who are in, or want to enter, the fascinating world of EV tech. We’ll look at the details of chargers that work and that don’t. We’ll look at charging aggregates, hubs, public sector unit chargers, pole chargers and others.
We’ll take you into our meetings with the EV community that we had along the way. If you’re in the industry, you might get a point-of-view of what it’s like being a customer at your charger. If you’re a hobbyist, you might see trends that are at play in the country’s charging infrastructure.
Thoughts on the Route
I’ve been itching to go on a really long road trip for a while. Bengaluru made a good choice as I like to visit the city once a year. I cannot fathom living in the city (apologies to the 10 million people who live there), but one trip a year is still doable.
The plan was this: Drive from New Delhi - Bengaluru. Here, I’d take a couple of days of rest, meet some EV folk, meet some friends, check out some chargers. From here, we’d drive from Bengaluru to Coimbatore, where we had a few meetings scheduled. From Coimbatore, we’d drive to Varkala in southern Kerala to take a small break before the long drive back to New Delhi.
The trip was pretty long with a lot of uncertainty. It made no sense to plan in advance. We had a rough idea of the routes for each day. But we decided to fix our stop for the night based on how we felt on that day. It would also reinforce our point: an EV is no different from a Petrol vehicle when it comes to planning these trips.
This is my 27th road trip, and unlike most trips, this trip wasn’t going to be solo. This was a pretty long trip and it would be tiring (and boring) to drive the whole thing alone.
Driving solo for these distances is difficult. Particularly, with much of the driving on National Highway and district roads where one has to be constantly on high alert for diversions, cattle on road, motorists on wrong way and people rushing across the road, bumps and potholes, and generally, a higher proportion of bad drivers.
This time, Garvit, whose articles you’ve also been reading here, joined me on this trip from Day 2.
The trip that is comparable to this is the Delhi - Kolkata - Mumbai - Delhi. That was almost 5,000 km long. What was different in that trip versus this was that I had longer rest days in both Kolkata and Mumbai. Here, we would be near constantly on the move.
In short, the trip would test us and our vehicle. My car has definitely seen some degradation over the 80,000+km covered so far in it. So ya, the trip will push us both to the edge.
Series Index
The Epic EV Roadtrip! (Publishing date 16 February 2026)
New Delhi to Bengaluru (Publishing date TBD)
Bengaluru to Varkala
Varkala to Hyderabad
Hyderabad to New Delhi
Chargers, Charging and Commentary
This is an index of articles to come. The links will be updated as the articles are published. You can bookmark this section or subscribe to get them straight to your inbox.
This series of articles wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our team. The trip, time, effort - everything was self sponsored and costs money. We do not take advertising or sponsorship money. It allows us to say the uncomfortable truth without compromising on our ethics. You can do your bit by buying us a pizza or getting a premium subscription to the Substack.
Behind the wheel : Garvit, Priyans
Words and Graphics : Priyans
Edit : Mohit Rao
Map : Siddharth Agarwal
Thanks to Ferrari Rules for providing us with the link to the savings calculator!
All rights reserved with Priyans Murarka @ ExpWithEVs.
The data from here and this article cannot be repackaged or sold without explicit written permission of ExpWithEVs.