We covered 2,000km in an EV across Maharashtra: Highways were easy, charging was a no-go

In a detailed post on Team-BHP, forum member Anurag.Somani shared his experience of driving almost 2,000 km across Maharashtra in an electric vehicle. What started as a planned family road trip from Mumbai to Tadoba and back turned into an honest look at the realities of highway EV travel, where the car impressed but the charging ecosystem often tested the patience.What was supposed to be a smooth Mumbai-Tadoba family drive turned out to be a lesson in detours, queues and lots of charging apps. The car did its job. The systems around it still need work.It started like most family road trips do. Departure late evening after office. pack bag. Snacks were stocked. One child was already half asleep before the first signal turned green.The plan seemed simple. About 2,000 km from Mumbai to Tadoba and back, including some local routes. An overnight stay at Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) on the way, and an overnight stay at Nagpur on the return. We’ll do the simple things that make road trips feel safer. Break the drive. Eat at fixed points. Start early-ish. sleep well.The only twist was that we were doing it in an electric vehicle.I went with confidence. Not because I thought everything would be perfect, but because I planned it the way EV owners are forced to plan. In blocks. In percentage. Charging stops are scheduled around meals.By the end of the trip, I still loved the drive. I didn’t like what it took to keep it going.

Felt like it was made for highway cruising

Samridhi Mahamarg does something rare. This makes one feel less tired while driving long distances. Long straight stretches, tunnels and bridges, and the kind of open road that makes you want to turn off your brain. This is also the risk. When the road remains straight for so long, fatigue sets in quietly. You need a break even when you don’t feel like you need a break.There were moments that made you stop and look outside. The rural landscape, extended post-monsoon lush green views, and animal crossing underpasses and overbridges made the highway a bit more thoughtful than the usual “build fast, move” approach.But this is where the reality of EVs begins. The expressway itself is a clean run. Your charging is not stopped.

First surprise: charging rarely happens on the highway

If you are expecting a charger like petrol pump on the expressway then you will be disappointed.Most fast chargers are placed near exits, food plazas or around properties near the highway. Which means each charging stop becomes a short detour. You get down. You drive in. You got the charger. You come back out. Time goes on.In our trip, each charging session meant an extra 15 to 20 minutes of time before the actual charging even started.On paper it doesn’t seem like much. It feels like 10pm at night with a tired family, when all you want is a “stop, charge, eat, go” break.

This is what no one tells you: App fatigue is real

Petrol is a payment. Charging is often five.Different networks, different apps, different prepaid wallets. You pay for a charger, and later you realize you have money sitting in your wallet that you won’t be able to use again for months. You arrive at a station and find that the payment flow is different from the one you used last time. You spend more time looking at your phone than you expect to spend on a road trip.By the second day, the process starts to feel less like a trip and more like an admin task.What you want is simple. One payment system that works everywhere. UPI, cards, one flow. All you often get is “download it, load money, try again”.

What the plan actually looked like

Before leaving, I mapped out charging breaks approximately every 200 km. The logic was basic. We will club charging with dinner, breakfast, lunch and overnight stay. We will not consider charging as a separate activity. This will become part of the bus stop.This approach served well on the way to Tadoba. Most breaks stayed close to plan. About 30 minutes to reach 80% and move on. The drive seemed calm because we weren’t pushing it to the edge.The return leg was where the cracks appeared.

Away from big cities, options shrink rapidly

Charging is felt in abundance near major cities. Move away and the map starts to thin out.At one place, about 250 km from Nagpur, we reached a charger and found that four cars were already standing in the queue, with only two charging guns. Waiting was an option. So was gambling on the next one. We chose backup.Backup worked, but it was slow. A 30kW charger which extended our stay time by about 45 minutes. No one was angry. Nothing was dramatic. But the mathematics was clear. A slow charger can reshape your entire day.That’s about it for EV travel on highways right now. This is not a big problem. That’s ten little delays that have piled up.

Speed ​​changes everything, and not in a fun way

This is the lesson you learn when you try to “drive normally.”At 120 kmph, the range drops rapidly. On the upside, higher speeds mean more frequent charging. On the return, we consciously drove a longer distance at around 90 kmph, and the difference was obvious. Less stops, less stress, and overall a happier day.You do not have to drive slowly. But you have to drive with a plan. And that plan changes with your right foot.

The small, practical hack that saved the trip

At Tadoba, we used slow charging during our stay. A simple long extender for a trickle charger, and a 16A socket which most properties have.This is not glamorous. It is not fast. But on long trips, slow charging at night is a quiet superpower. You wake up with more buffer, and your first decision of the day isn’t “Where do we charge?”

What I learned, in plain words

This trip didn’t convert me into an EV evangelist. It also didn’t turn me into an EV critic.Only one thing became clear from this.The car can handle the highway. The highway ecosystem is still gaining momentum.If you were planning a long drive like this, I wish someone had told me in advance:

We came back with wonderful memories of the drive and the destination. And also with a new habit.Before any long EV trip, I plan the road now. And then I plan everything that happens after I leave it.