Delhi to Jaipur EV road trip exposes charging gaps | Delhi News
Ishita JairathNew Delhi: Two hours into what was meant to be an easy drive to Jaipur, Dr Ranjana Mithal glanced at the dashboard of her electric car. The charge had dipped to 45%. The road ahead was clear, the car still gliding smoothly, but something was not as it should be.“I got anxious,” she said. The doctor left Vasant Kunj at 9 am with 100% charge and a simple plan. The map showed a clean four-hour run via Faridabad. For the first stretch, the plan held. An open highway with thinning traffic, the kind of effortless drive she had come to expect.Back in Delhi, she was used to not thinking about charging at all. Since buying her EV last Sept, around the time Tesla opened its first showroom in Delhi, her routine was settled. She would plug in at home on a wall charger when needed, unplug, and drive. No detours, no waiting, no second-guessing.But on the highway, the story was different. On the app, the charger showed up without a problem. On the ground, it stayed blank. No response, no explanation. She waited, checked again, and then got back into the car.From there, the uncertainty began to build.At one location, the machine would not start. At another, no one nearby knew how to operate it. A showroom she pulled into did not have a charging point at all. Each halt followed the same pattern: slow down, pull in, step out, try, wait, leave, each stop leaving her with a little less charge than before.“We kept moving from one place to another, watching the battery charge drop,” she said. It took 45 minutes to find a charger that finally worked, tucked near a hotel. The relief was immediate. But it did not last as the rhythm of the drive was already broken.“After that, the drive didn’t feel comfortable. We reached Jaipur around 7.30 pm.”If the onward journey was uncertain, the return offered little reassurance.The outcome was the same. “Nothing worked,” she said. Back in Delhi, however, the experience returned to what it was: smooth and dependable. But out on the highway, the ease does not travel with her.Her experience, in many ways, reflects the large gap between policy ambition and the on-ground reality of EV adoption. This comes at a time when the Delhi govt is also preparing to roll out a new EV policy aimed at accelerating adoption, offering incentives to those who scrap older BS-IV or earlier vehicles and switch to electric. Buyers of electric two-wheelers could receive Rs 10,000, while those opting for electric three-wheelers may get Rs 25,000.In 2025, Delhi sold 70,875 pure electric vehicles, with EVs now making up 6.7% of new registrations, up from just 0.3% the previous year. Private electric car registrations more than doubled between January and Sept, though two-wheeler growth remained largely flat.But growth in numbers has not been matched by reliability on the ground.Later, looking at her phone, the route seemed neatly dotted with chargers, easy to access. On the drive, most were already ruled out.“The biggest problem is there are too many apps and too few reliable stations,” Mithal said. “You keep switching, checking, hoping something works.”Her device now carries seven to 10 charging apps, each with its own login and wallet, often leaving behind small, unusable balances. Planning a trip starts to feel less about distance and more about guesswork.“With CNG, you just swipe a card and go. Why can’t EVs have one system like that?” She is not alone. TOI in its earlier report covered a similar plight by another driver. Many on social media continue to post on such issues.Then, some report that cars claiming a 330 km range often deliver closer to 250–300 km in real conditions. As of July 2025, India had around 5,000 EV charging stations.NHAI did not respond to TOI’s query, which highlighted that users say charging stations are often hard to locate.
