Mumbai Goa Mumbai via new (NH4) and old (NH66) expressways
Mumbai Goa Mumbai via new (NH4) and old (NH66) expressways
Yes, you can travel between Mumbai and Goa via NH66
Housekeeping
It is time for another road trip article! I’ve not been able to do more of those lately, but I’ve been putting out articles. I did an exclusive (paywalled) story on why many BPCL chargers are down for The Ken. If you are a subscriber to The Ken, then please read and share your feedback. For this blog, I also did a deep dive into ChargeZone’s fast charging data and understood how and when Indians like to fast charge their cars. I’ve also been ranting on Twitter about TATA service centers. They don’t follow the guidelines mentioned in the manual as well as their service app when servicing EVs. This indicates that legacy OEMs have a long way to go.
I’ve started reaching out to various Charge Point Operators (CPOs) to collect some data. If you are a CPO, then please fill this form.
I’m glad the hot summers are over and monsoons are here. Monsoon is the best time to explore places around Mumbai. The Western ghats are lush green and full of life. My favourite place to visit in the monsoons is Goa. Goa is known for its beaches, but the state also has a lot of rice and coconut fields, and forest cover on its Eastern boundary that are part of the Western Ghats. The greenery, the smell of the forests, and the soft mud make me really happy. I was lucky to experience the first heavy showers of the season in early June this year.
There are two routes between Mumbai and Goa - NH4 and NH66. NH4 is the new expressway going from Mumbai - Pune - Satara - Kolhapur. NH66 is the old highway parallel to the ‘train route’, and goes via Mangaon - Mahad - Chiplun - Rajapur - Kudal to Goa.
The previous monsoon, I drove to Goa and back via the NH4 expressway. There were plenty of chargers on the route. The route wasn’t particularly challenging as far as chargers are concerned, so I didn’t write about it. The data for that trip is available here.
This time, I took the NH4 while going and NH66 while returning. I’ve written down my experience of this trip here. As usual, if you’d like to skip the text, you can dive into the data here.
If you are one for the visuals, check out my charging stations playlist and the Mumbai Goa Mumbai playlist on YouTube. The charging stations playlist has videos of charging stations that I’ve visited during my trips. Enjoy!
The Planning
The first leg planning was easy. There are plenty of chargers on this route, one every 40-50 km between Mumbai and Kolhapur. An experienced highway EV driver need not plan on this route unless optimizing for charging time, having meals at preferred restaurants, or attending a virtual meeting during a charging stop.
The optimized time scenario in the ZS EV is when you go from Mumbai to Goa with a single charging stop. The stop can be somewhere between Satara and Karad. Mumbai to Satara is ~250 km with an elevation gain of 500m. With the AC on, one can reach Satara with ~50 km range or ~10-20% charge remaining. Without the AC, one would have ~25% charge at Satara.
There are two fast chargers in Satara, two between Satara and Karad, and two in Karad. Satara to Karad is 50 km. So one can choose the charger according to the maximum charging speed supported by the car.
You’d have little juice left once you reach Goa, despite the later descent on the western ghats.
Let’s go!
Forward leg
I didn’t do the trip on a single charge. I was not in a hurry, nor was I optimizing my charging stops. My objective was to reach Goa with a decent battery buffer.
I usually start my trips before sunrise. I get to watch the sun rise in a natural setting, not in the concrete city jungles. Lower temperatures and no traffic make the journey pleasurable. On my last trip to Hyderabad, I had stopped for a charge within Pune city. It was a mistake because of the morning city traffic. Not wanting to repeat that, my first planned charging stop this time was at Jio BP’s 60 kW charger at Kelawade. Kelawade is 30 km South of Pune city. I tried to reserve a time slot on this particular charger but faced the following error.
It took me 3 hours and 20 minutes to cover the 180 km to Kelawade. I had 50% charge left, which would have been enough to just get me to Kolhapur.
This charger is also the highest-speed one (60 kW) on this highway after Pune. A successful charge would mean a shorter charging stop. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that lucky.
I connected the charger and initiated charging via the app. But the car wouldn’t charge. I decided to not spend any time debugging. Looking back, if I had initiated the charging from the app before connecting the gun, it might’ve worked. I rated my experience on PlugShare and decided to head to my backup charger.
Jio BP has been aggressively growing their charging network, and surprisingly, I have never charged at their chargers. Jio BP’s chargers tend to be on Jio petrol pumps with little to nothing to do. An average charging stop is for around 30-40 minutes. I’ve preferred to stop at a charger with easy access to washrooms and restaurants. In Jio’s case, restaurants aren’t on the same premises and can be upto 500 meters away. At Kelawade too, there were a couple of restaurants across the road. I don’t remember if they were open at around 8:30 A.M.
Luckily for me, there was a charging station just 22 km beyond Kelawade, at Shirwal. This was my 30kW backup charger by ChargeZone using Ador Digatron’s hardware.
There were a few chairs kept under the shade to sit on. The roof could’ve been bigger to cover the entire car. There are also small tea shops and eateries immediately next to the charger and a couple more eateries down the road.
I spent 40 minutes at this 60 kW dual gun (maximum 30 kW per gun) charger. It would’ve been better if the charger could dispense the entire 60 kW through one gun. While charging, an Audi Etron pulled up at the charger. Mr. Santosh, the owner of the Etron, and I spoke about electric vehicles and the industry in India. He loved his electric vehicle and was delighted with the car’s performance. He spent extra money to get two dash cams installed in his car, one at the front and one at the back. He is a part of the global community of Etron owners. The community members share experiences and notes about their cars. It has been an enriching experience for him. You can join your favorite Indian EV community by messaging my Telegram bot.
The car was topped up to 82%. I had a range of 326 km, which wasn’t enough for me to reach Goa. The total distance left was 376 km. With an additional 10% charge, I would’ve managed to reach my destination with almost no charge left. This wouldn’t have worked for me, so it didn’t make sense to wait and charge more. I left once I was done with my work calls and talking to Mr. Santosh.
It was late morning, and the air around me was hot. I switched on the car’s AC. High humidity and heat resulted in an increased wet bulb temperature, making it uncomfortable. The car’s AC in Eco mode was useless. The Normal and Sports mode AC worked much better and provided instant cooling. The AC load increased the consumption numbers. The impact was such that Mumbai - Shirwal and Shirwal - Itkare, around 30 km before Kolhapur, had similar mileage. Mumbai - Shirwal had an incline climb of 600 meters, whereas Shirwal - Itkare had no incline gain. The efficiency was 7.7 km / kWh.
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NH4 is a great highway to drive on. The roads are wide, smooth, and multi-lane. There’s little to no wrong-side driving and no road work or diversions.
I decided to stop at a Jio BP charger in Itkare due to multiple reasons. My wallet was already loaded in anticipation of the planned Jio BP charging session at Kelawade, which obviously didn’t happen. My wallet balance could be used here instead of asking the company for a refund. It was past noon, and I was hungry. I could eat something while the car charged. There was a restaurant roughly 300 meters from the charger.
The food court had a single restaurant with all types of major cuisines: South Indian, North Indian, Maharashtrian, etc. My go-to meal at such stops in Maharashtra is often Misal Pav. I like how it tastes slightly differently across various parts of the state. Kolhapuri Misal is spicy, Solapur one is hot, Mumbai one has a tangy flavour. The food court also had Sol Kadi. I drank two glasses after my meal. It helped in dealing with high humidity and the afternoon heat.
It was a good decision to not charge in Kolhapur, but before getting there. Unfortunately, there were riots in the city. The government had shut down the internet, so chargers wouldn’t have worked. Timely messages from the community helped me make my decision.
I finished my meal, and the car had charged from 42% to 81%. This was enough charge to get to Goa with the planned buffer. It took me 8 hours to cover ~60% of my journey with two charging stops. With no more stops required, the rest of the journey would be faster.
There are three routes to go to Goa from Kolhapur. They are Kolhapur - Kudal - Goa, Kolhapur - Sankeshwar - Goa and Kolhapur - Belagavi - Goa. The last route is better suited if your destination is South Goa. The first two routes are preferred for going to North Goa.
I was staying near Sangolda, which lies in North Goa. I have always travelled on the Sankeshwar route, which goes via Amboli Ghat, and decided to stick to this route. Big mistake. There were too many diversions. Many sections of the roads were filled with gravel. They were dusty due to the ongoing road construction. And in places only one of the two lanes were open for two-way traffic.
It was exhausting to drive on these roads. It needed a lot of focus, and I couldn’t maintain a decent speed either. I’d have to drive very slowly over the gravel, and there was always the stress of puncturing the tyres.
All exhaustion disappeared when I saw the lush green trees from Amboli Ghat. The elevation drop across the ghats is close to 700 m over 12 km. The ghats pass through a forested area with signboards warning of animal crossings. The only animal one needs to be afraid of on these roads are the bus drivers. They drive rashly on these ghats and don’t think they need to use the horn.
I didn’t spend any charge to cover these 12 km. In fact, the car gained charge because of the downhill drive. This is the power of regenerative braking and electric vehicles. You can’t get petrol, diesel, CNG, or hydrogen back in the tank, can you? Switch to an EV today!
I reached my destination with 27% remaining. The last leg of the journey was 228 km, with an efficiency of 8.8 km / kWh. If the efficiency was similar to the previous two legs, i.e., 7.7 km / kWh, then the total battery consumed would be ~ 228 km / 7.7 km / kWh = 29.6 kWh. With 8.8 km / kWh, the battery consumed was 26 kWh. That’s a gain of 3.6kWh, which translates to ~7% reduced battery consumption.
Goa
I drove for roughly 300 km in Goa over a few days. The excessive driving and easy access only to slow charging was why I needed the battery buffer. I slow charged my car via a 15-amp socket in my friends’ kitchen. I was carrying my 30-meter extension cable to connect to the socket. After driving all day everyday, I would put my car to charge overnight. Over the course of 10-12 hours, the car would easily charge by 40-50%.
There was no roof over the parking area. With monsoons and dark clouds looming, I had to find a way to ensure that the electrical socket of the extension cable wouldn’t get wet. Thankfully, the Bira cold case came to the rescue. Here’s what I did.
Driving in Goa is a pleasurable experience. The roads are newly made, with massive bridges across Goa’s rivers cutting short the travel time. Living and driving in Goa feels like one always has the option of dipping into the concrete world by visiting cities like Panjim or stay away in areas like Sangolda, Siolim, etc.
Return leg
The car was at 99% charge on the morning of my return journey. I wanted to drive on NH66, which is the old Mumbai Goa route. NH66 is the highway that runs along the West coast of the country, connecting Mumbai to the southernmost tip of the mainland - Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
The highway is a two-lane expressway with no active toll plazas on the road. The road is flanked by multiple protected forest areas on the East and the Arabian Sea on the West. Within Maharashtra, going northwards, there is Radhanagari Wildlife Sanctuary, Chandoli National Park, Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary, Raigad Fort Natural Reserve, and Karnala Bird Sanctuary.
How is the charging infrastructure on this 550 km route?
There are roughly 15 fast chargers on this route via 10 different CPOs <facepalm>. BPCL has 4 chargers, and Statiq has 2. Most of these chargers are concentrated closer to Mumbai. Towards Goa, the rest of the chargers are all by different CPOs and relatively new. Not many people have left a review on Plugshare about their experience, making it somewhat less reliable. Hence it made sense to take this route while going from Goa to Mumbai and not the other way around.
Here’s the elevation chart. There’s a stark difference between the NH66 and NH4 routes. The NH66 is on the western side of the Western Ghats. This is the windward side, which also makes it especially pleasurable to drive in the monsoons.
The first charging stop was after a mere 100 km at Janavali, Kankavali, South Maharashtra. I witnessed almost no traffic from Goa to Kankavali on this route. Not many people drive back from Goa at 6 a.m. on a weekday and this highway also has very few major cities along its route.
The Charge Point Operator (CPO) at Kankavali was Bijlify. Another new CPO meant another new app and a wallet. The State of Charge (SoC) was 69%, and I didn’t necessarily have to charge here. I was hungry and wanted to eat the delicious sandwiches that were packed for breakfast. One can never go wrong with Aaron’s bread - Breaking Bread with Aaron, Sangolda, Goa. I initiated charging and also ate to my heart’s content. It was just 8 a.m., and the restaurant next to the charger hadn’t opened yet. Right opposite the charger was a non operational 7.2 kW GOEC slow charger. Having a slow charger next to a single-gun fast charger is really helpful to all 4W EV owners. If the fast charger is occupied, the second car can always slow charge and keep charging until the fast charger is free to use again.
It was a good spot to take a break. This is how it looked nearby.
I charged my car to 89% within 23 minutes. I had a range of 353 km, which was enough to get me within 100 km of Mumbai, where I had access to plenty of chargers.
From Kankavali, I started making my way northward on NH66. Post Kankavali, I saw a lot more people. The villages are set up close to the highway and sometimes the highway passes through the villages. This isn’t the case with NH4. NH4 looks a lot more like modern continuous highways. The food courts are also a lot more prominent on NH4. You’ll get branded restaurants on NH4, but not on NH66. So your mileage may vary.
My next stop after Kankavali was 180 km away in Chiplun. It was past noon, and I was hungry again. SoC was 40% so the car wasn’t as hungry. Chiplun has a 15 kW EFill charger just off the highway. There are a couple of eateries next to the charger, some departmental stores, and also a Lakme salon. EFill chargers are usually 15 kW. I encountered a similar one on my trip to Hyderabad.
15 kW is slow charging, but I was glad to find a charger on this route. 15 kW is better than no chargers! The most popular car in India charges at 25 kW and the second most popular one charges at 18 kW.
I spent an hour at the charger and charged my car to 68%. As I was about to unplug and leave, the owner of the charging station and the nearby department store came to chat with me. He mentioned that the charging station had recently been inaugurated and that he had seen 2-3 cars charging every day. All of them were Tata’s cars. It makes sense because Tata has an 80% market share in the Indian EV ecosystem.
He also mentioned that there are massive power cuts on Monday. I was lucky because the supply went off as soon as I unplugged my car. There were plenty of stations in the next 100 kms, but the whole ordeal of finding the station, navigating to it, seeing if you have the app, booking a charging slot, and checking if you have the balance or not in the wallet is taxing, even for an experienced user like me.
From Chiplun, I made my way towards Statiq’s charger at Mangaon. It took me 2.5 hours to cover 122 km with 36% SoC. I didn’t necessarily have to charge here but the stop was also a good stretching break. Knowing that the charger here was 60 kW helped. I could get more charge for a shorter duration of a stop. And I did exactly that. A 23 minute charging stop included a visit to the washroom, a snack break, and 71% SoC. I was ready to head home.
I reached home with 33% SoC and concluded my wonderful Goa trip. I ended up driving 1476 km on my trip. Of which 1146 km were on the highways between Mumbai and Goa. The rest of the 330 km were spent driving across Goa.
Conclusions and final thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed driving in the monsoon season along the western ghats. Both NH4 and NH66 have their own charm.
It is easier to go north from Goa on NH66 than to go south.
NH4 is evergreen with chargers till Kolhapur.
Explore the Western Ghats in the monsoons.
By the time you read this, I’ll already be in Goa yet again. Follow on X to get the latest updates.
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Text and data - Priyans Murarka
Map and editing - Siddharth Agarwal