Long way around

We set off on a quest to prove that sustainable mobility powered by electric cars IS a reality today, one that’s not just limited to urban areas but makes traversing many cities possible as we attempt a single, continuous drive around the country and set over 30 records In the process

The talk about sustainable mobility and electric cars is increasingly dominating the debate in India and there is an increasing push from the government towards the making and selling of electric cars in the country. While it may have been possible to use an electric car as a city runabout, most have been skeptical of doing long trips with electric cars. However, in the past year, not only has infrastructure development been given a push with many OEMs and service providers putting up fast chargers but a number of world class electric cars have also been launched in the country.

So when the question of whether India is ready for electric cars came up we decided to find out for ourselves by embarking on a very ambitious drive across the country. In fact, over a decade back when the roads connecting the four, or rather five main metro cities of India was ready, and called the Golden Quadrilateral (or G-Quad for short), we had taken an ICE car and set a record for a round trip connecting Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. And with an electric car, we decided to replicate the very same drive. We decided to start off at the city of Varanasi on the Golden Quadrilateral, drive to Kolkata, and on to Chennai and Bengaluru, and from there to Pune, Mumbai, Vadodara, Udaipur, Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow and back to Varanasi.