MG Windsor Pro Owner: Charging Infra Still Woefully Inadequate For Long Trips
Electric vehicles are gaining ground in India. In the recent past, we saw EV technology evolve and batteries (and range figures) grow. Today, there are accessible electric vehicles that offer ‘intercity commuting abilities’. The MG Windsor EV is a classic example. The ‘Pro’ version that has a sub-20 lakh ex-showroom price is claimed to deliver a range of 449 km per charge, ideal for inter-city commutes. An owner has now shared his experience of doing a 500 km drive with the Windsor Pro. It turned out to be a bittersweet experience.
Siddharth Bhimani, the owner, shared his experience through a thread on X (previously Twitter). He drove the long-range Windsor from Mumbai to Nashik and back. The round trip spanned over 500 km. This included the city commute as well. Bhimani completed the drive in a single day, more accurately, in 19 hours.
He starts by saying that he usually has to travel to Nashik once a month for work. Usually, he would go there driving his Innova and stay at the Courtyard Marriott and return the next day, after completing his assignments and meetings. This time, he decided to do this in his Windsor Pro.
The regular Windsor comes with a 38 kWh battery pack that has a claimed range of 331 km per charge. The real-world range will obviously be lower. The Windsor Pro, on the other hand, has a larger 52.9 kWh battery and a higher range of 449 km per charge. The real-world range will not leave the user vulnerable if embarking on a long drive. Bhimani was confident about his EV and its abilities. To be on the safer side, he called Four Points by Sheraton a day before embarking on the road trip and confirmed that their EV charger was functional.
Next day, he started from Mumbai at 6:30am. The vehicle’s battery was fully charged and the indicated range was 426 km. Bhimani picked up one of his colleagues soon after starting. The two then travelled together. Four Points by Sheraton was approximately 200 km away. It was clearly within the Windsor Pro’s comfort zone.
The two took the Samruddhi Mahamarg. At the time of writing this article, this expressway is toll-free for electric vehicles. Just before entering it, they pulled over at hotel Shiv Sagar, at Amane, for breakfast. By then, the charge level had come down to 84%. They did not, however, charge the vehicle there.
Bhimani says that the Samruddhi Mahamarg is an amazing road and brings significant savings since there are no tolls. He also adds that it is much better than the old Nashik highway.
They reached Four Points at around 10:45 am- approximately four hours after they started the drive. By the time they reached the hotel, the EV’s charge level had reached 40%. He had to hit the road again for client visits. The plan was to plug it into the DC fast charger and top up before setting out for these.
Shattering these plans, he was told at the reception that the hotel’s charger was down for the past two days. They, however, told him that they’d call the mechanic to fix it and in the worst case, he could charge it overnight at an AC point. Fair enough...
Bhimani went on client visits with the battery level around 40%. The destination was within a distance of 25km. Simultaneously, he also tried to locate DC charger. He could find one at BPCL, 10 km away. Upon reaching there, however, he was told that the internet was down and the vehicle could not be charged. Now, anxiety started seeping in. Battery levels now dropped to 30% and the indicated range was around 120 km. With the battery level and range low, the trip was now turning out to be a gamble.
He even tried calling the MG service centre in the hope of finding a charger, but found no luck. The staff, however, told him that he might find one at Taj Express Inn or Taj Gateway. He had another client meet 15 km away, and says that it embarrassed him to ‘hunt for chargers mid-work’.
By 5:45, he finished his meetings. Range anxiety had now peaked as the battery level was at 23%. Determined to find a charger, he drove to Express Inn. By the time he reached there, the battery was down to 17%. Bhimani says he was furious at the hotel for having misled him on the charger status. Luckily, he could charge at Express Inn. Topping up incurred a cost of Rs 1200. More importantly, the owner was relieved of anxiety.
The next day’s client meetings got cancelled, and so, he was ready for the return journey. Since the car was recharged properly, he could drive back peacefully. He drove through the Samruddhi Mahamarg again, and reached Mumbai at around 12:45 am. In his closing remarks, Bhimani said that despite being hit with range anxiety mid-way, choosing the EV for this journey helped him save around Rs 4000.
Thankfully, the owner in this case did not get stranded mid-way. In a previous case, we saw a BYD eMax 7 owner go through similar anxiety cycles due to uncertainties in locating functional chargers and due to power outages and charger failures. The duration of his trip got extended massively due to the same. This Windsor Pro owner's experience is another reminder of the existing gap between the evolution of EVs and proper development and maintenance of charging infrastructure.