Mahindra E2O electric car owner clocks 1 lakh Km: Spends only Rs 85,000 for electricity & maintenance [Video]

Mahindra E2O, which was the first electric car after the Mahindra Reva in the Indian market has completed half a decade of its existence in India. Here is an owner of the Mahindra E2O, which has clocked more than 1 lakh km on the electric hatchback. PlugInIndia has shared an interview with Mr K V Suresh from Noida, Uttar Pradesh who is an owner of the Mahindra E2O for last five years. He has shared his experience of living with an EV.

Mahindra E2O at 1 lakh km

Mr Suresh bought the vehicle five years back when it was just launched in the market for around Rs 6 lakhs. As the video shows, the owner has completed one lakh km in the car and shares the maintenance cost of the vehicle as well as his experience with the car. As per Mr Suresh, he charges the E2O every night and vehicle goes for around 10 km for every unit of electricity it consumes. As per the calculations, every unit of the electricity costs Rs 5 on an average and to power the vehicle for 1,00,000 km, Mr Suresh has spent only Rs 50,000 on the electricity.

Further, Mr Suresh says that he has spent only about Rs 35,000 in the lifetime of the vehicle for the maintenance. The vehicle’s rear wheel’s ball bearings had to be changed for a few times and recently, the front wheel ball bearings had to be changed too. He also mentions that Mahindra replaced the aluminium parts with the cast iron parts in a recall that gave away after a few months. But the part did not cost much.

While talking about the condition of the vehicle, he says it is in top-notch shape and did not create any kind of trouble till now. He regularly uses it to reach his office and charges the vehicle only once. Earlier, he used to travel a long distance but he says as the vehicle has become old, it may not be as reliable as it used to be when the battery drops to near-empty.

He has not replaced the battery yet and the status of the batteries is healthy and they return a long range too. If driven with a light foot, the vehicle still returns 120 km on a single charge and if driven normally, it can go up to 100 km per charge, which is quite a lot. The batteries can take up a major cost of the Electric Vehicles as they are the costliest part in an EV. At present, the batteries have become much more efficient and reliable too.

Comparing the cost with a regular petrol-powered hatchback, the ownership cost of an EV is minuscule. As shown in the video, a petrol car can return around 12 km/l fuel efficiency and with Rs 70 per litre taken as a price of the fuel on an average, only the running cost of the vehicle for 1,00,000 km comes to be around Rs 6 lakh, which is extremely high. Plus there are other charges like servicing, maintenance and repairs.