Solo drive from KanyaKumari to Kashmir in my Mercedes EQS SUV

BHPian indianytheroad recently shared this with other enthusiasts: Since I am based out of Bengaluru, the first step was to reach Kannyakumari. This trip has to be done by me, solo, nobody else in the car with me.02-May-2026 - Starting point, Bengaluru to Kanyakumari, 635 Kilometers, 9 hours 56 minutesI decided to leave early for Kanyakumari so that I can arrive on time and have a good night's sleep. Left at 05:20 am and headed towards Kannyakumari via NH-44. I get a practical range of around 675 to 700 kilometres on a full charge, so reaching Kannyakumari was not really an issue. The biggest issue was that there is no decent charger available in Kanyakumari and I wanted to leave as close to 100% in the morning. That issue resulted in some challenges. I drove for around one and a half hours and arrived at Murugal Idli Shop for my breakfast. Had a nice breakfast and spent around 30 minutes on breakfast. Left this place at 7:25 am and continued driving for almost four and a half hours. I stopped at Zeon Charger near Dindigul. This place is an A2B on the opposite side. Although I did not need to charge, I was being mindful of the fact that I would not get a really fast charger in Kanyakumari, and this was a 120KW charger. Although it turned out to be less than perfect because another car was already there and I had to share power with them. Nevertheless, I spent almost an hour here and topped up the car to 100% and had my lunch at the same time, and then I left for Kanyakumari. Quote:Charged for 40 minutes, 52.1 KWh, 25.90 per KWh total 1,592.28 I arrived in Kanyakumari at around 4:45 pm and checked into Hotel Tamilnadu. Rest of the day was spend in walking around near the shoreline. I had an early dinner in a local eatery and then, before going to bed, decided to check if there was any charging possible nearby. Found a HP petrol pump with a working charger, decided to top-up there. This was not a great charger. There was another car that had parked to the left and was using the right side of the road. The gun wouldn't reach my car. After some time, that guy left, and I charged for around an hour. This place was almost 20 minutes from my hotel, and since I had driven to that place, I felt I should stay there. But the charger was very slow. Quote:Charged for 58:40 minutes, 28.17 KWh, 15.50 per KWh total 515.23Finally drove back to the hotel and went to bed. Hotel Tamilnadu is a typical government hotel, with a great location and average service.03-May-2026 - Kanyakumari to Hospete (Kireeti), 948 Kilometers, 15 hours 23 minutesFinally, my K2K drive has to begin. I had a little bit of anxiety, and I got up early, earlier than I wanted to get up. So I started straight away. I skipped breakfast in the hotel and decided to have it at the same A2B near Dindigul, where I charged while coming to Kanyakumari. Started from the place at 05:00 am. Drove for 4 hours and arrived at the same Zeon Charger near Dindigul. I arrived at the charger/restaurant at around 09:10 am. I had decided that I would charge only once and then cross Bengaluru and then stop on the other end of Bengaluru. So decided to charge the vehicle to 100%. Also, I had to have my breakfast. This was a Saturday and that too as part of a long weekend. So the restaurant itself had a waiting list. Luckily, when I reached the charger, there was nobody, so I promptly put my car on charge and waited to find a table in A2B. Quote:Charged for 01:19:00 hours, total 81.20 KWh,25.90 per KWh, total 2,481.63 This was a long stop because of rush in the restaurant. By the time I left it was almost 11:00 am. From here, I was all set to cross Bengaluru, drove for straight eight hours (seven hours and 44 minutes to be precise). Got to Bengaluru, too NICE road, got out on the other end on Pune highway. Arrived at Hotel Nanjundeshwara Veg at 6:43 pm which had one of those new Mahindra Charge_IN chargers. Again, because of the experience in the morning, I was dreading the crowd, but this place was OK. They have four charging guns, and only once was it occupied. So I put my car on a spare charger and went to have my dinner. Quote:Charged for 01:00:00 hours, total 73.68 KWh,20.00 per KWh, total 1,738.85 Started from this place at 8:00 pm and arrived at Hotel Royal Orchid near Hampi at 11:44 pm. The primary reason for choosing this hotel was that they had a Jio-BP charger. This charger is little flaky but it still did the job. Quote:Charged for 00:58:00 hours, total 53.24 KWh,25.99 per KWh, total 1,632.77This charging time was spent while I was sleeping. The hotel was kind enough to pack a breakfast for me, so I did not have to wait for breakfast to start. 04-May-2026 - Kireeti to Indore, 992 Kilometers, 15 hours 35 minutesI started from the hotel at 06:00 am and had my breakfast while driving. I was looking for a place that could provide me with hot tea, but could not find any open place and kept driving. 9:34 am arrived at Hotel & Resort Ashoka Village, they have a chargezone charger, and I thought I could get some tea/coffee there. I put the car on the charger and when I walked up to their restaurant, they said it was closed. It seems they only run it if there are enough guests. So I left the place. I did put a little charge in my car, but that was mostly meaningless.Quote:Charged for 00:14:23 hours, total 14.01 KWh,22.00 per KWh, total 363.70 I drove for another hour and a half and saw a charger named Saguna EVCS in a restaurant/dhaba named Saguna. By this time it was 11:20 am. I had never heard of this name, but I put the car on charge, ordered food and tea and started talking to the owner. He mentioned that he has bought all the equipment himself and attached it with a CPO called Nikol. He said that he manages everything, and he pays a small amount to the CPO for visibility on the app. He also mentioned that if the app doesn't work, he can manually start it and take the payment directly. It was nice to see a different business model. I left this place at 12:20 pm. Quote:Charged for 00:59:33 hours, total 56.75 KWh,21.99 per KWh, total 1,472.00 I had planned on staying in the Hotel Sheraton Grand in Indore for the second night because they have a Chargezone charger. When I checked on the Chargezone app, it showed the charger to be offline. Just to be sure, I called the call centre, and they mentioned that due to Civil construction on the site, the charger might be offline. This kind of put a spanner in the work as far as my plan went. As per the original plan, I did not need any charging sessions after this. I had planned on a small top-up at a restaurant as I neared Indore and had my dinner but when I checked that charger, it said one gun was faulty. To be on the safe side, I decided to charge somewhere earlier. Unfortunately, as you enter Maharashtra, smaller towns do have chargers, but most are 30 KW. Those 120 KW chargers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are becoming rare. I first encountered a BPCL petrol station, which mentioned that it had a 30 KW charger. I assumed it would be 30 KW per gun and if there is no other car, I might get 60 KW. I started charging, but the speed was too slow. I decided to give it some time, but eventually gave up. Quote:Charged for 00:40:51 hours, total 19.25 KWh,15.50 per KWh, total 352.08 As soon as I left this place and drove for another kilometre or so, I saw another sign that claimed a 120 KW Charger. So I again decided to charge there. This was a good place; the only issue was that there was nothing around it. Not even a tea or coffee stall. So I had to make my own tea and kill some time. Quote:Charged for 00:56:17 hours, total 74.56 KWh,22.00 per KWh, total 1,935.58 I left this place at 9:30 pm. The only issue was that I had not had dinner, and Indore was still some time away. So I decided to stop at Hotel Rajhans in Julwania, the same place where I was thinking of charging and having something to eat. I arrived at Hotel Rajhans at 10:41 pm and had my dinner. BTW, when I arrived here, one gun of the charger was working, so I connected it anyway. Even though the car was almost 90% at this time. But given the fact that there was no place to charge at night, I decided to charge it completely so that I don't have to worry about charging in the morning. Quote:Charged for 00:02:20 hours, total 2.79 KWh,22.00 per KWh, total 72.43 Finally drove straight to the Sheraton Grand in Indore and arrived there by 2:00 am. I decided it was too late and I would take it easy the next day. I decided to forego the alarm and decided I would leave when I woke up.05-May-2026 - Indore to Gurgaon, 717 Kilometers, 11 hours 36 minutesGot up comparatively leisurely and had a good breakfast, and then checked out of the hotel by 8:45 am. By this time, I realised that there was an issue with one of the tyres; it was leaking air. So I decided to get it repaired somewhere. After driving for a little over an hour, I found aready to make a proper puncture by patching it from the place that was inside. It was good that I decided to do that because the leak was from one of the earlier puncture repairs, and the traditional method would not have helped. Arrived at the puncture shop at 9:50 am and left by 10:30 am. There was a restaurant nearby, but that guy refused to make a sugarless tea, so no tea again. Ujjain to Garoth road is now completely done, and you can enter NE-4 at Garoth. I drove for around 2 hours and stopped at the first food court on NE-4. This place had a Volttic charger as well, so I topped up here. Quote:Charged for 00:24:46 hours, total 23.84 KWh,22.00 per KWh, total 618.89 I had a coffee and top-up in car and left this place and continued on NE-4. After around 60-70 kilometers on NE-4 near Mukandara you have to exit NE-4 because some tunnel or flyover is still not done. So I had to exit onto the old highway. As soon as I was about to enter the highway again, I saw Ishyu Highway Rasoi. It was already 2:30 pm, so it was past lunch time, and this also had a charger, so I decided to have lunch and also top up. Quote:Charged for 00:23:00 hours, total 15.51 KWh,22.00 per KWh, total 402.64 I was done with my Lunch by 2:50 pm, so I left the place and joined NE-4. Drove for another two hours and stopped at the next rest stop on NE-4. It was almost 5:00 pm, and this rest area had four JIO-BP chargers, so I decided to have my evening break, tea and also a charging session. This rest stop had better charging infrastructure but worse restaurants and other amenities. I preferred the previous one to this one. In any case, I decided to make this the last stop of the day, so I decided to have a deeper charging session here.Quote:Charged for 01:09:00 hours, total 75.31 KWh,25.99 per KWh, total 2,309.62 As per my original plan, I was planning to drive towards Ludiana or Jalandhar, but since I started late and some time was wasted in puncture repair, I decided to take a halt in Gurgaon. That was probably not the best decision, but it was the most comfortable one. I booked into Holiday Inn NH-8, they have a Vinfast charger that can be used on the Electreefi app. Since it was not a slow charger, I decided to put the car on charge after I got up in the morning. I arrived at the hotel at 10:15 pm and straight away went to bed,06-May-2026 - Gurgaon to Patnitop, 690 kilometres, 13 hours 2 minutesI got up at around 7:15 am and put the car on charge. Then I got ready and had my breakfast, and by the time I was done with that, the car was charged 100%. Quote:Charged for 02:34:00 hours, total 48.72 KWh,19.00 per KWh, total 1,092.30 I checked out and then left towards Srinagar. I did not want to drive late at night near Srinagar, so I decided to take a halt somewhere on the way. Found a hotel in Patnitop which also had a charging setup, so decided to take a night halt there. It still turned out to be too hectic because of lots of roads under construction due to the Delhi-Katra expressway. Staying in Gurgaon was a good decision from one angle; I was well rested, but Gurgaon turned out to be a nightmare to get out of because I hit the peak morning office traffic. Left the hotel at 8:45 am and drove for the next two and a half hours, arrived at a small mall kind of place that also had Starbucks, etc. at 11:11 am. Had a bio break and then coffee and continued at 11:31 am. I really wanted to stop at Indo-American Diner, but when I arrived there, there was no power. I did not want to have lunch when there was no charging, so I continued driving. Drove for another two hours and fifteen minutes and arrived at Celebration Bazar in Khanna at 1:45 pm. This place has a Statiq charger where I charged my car and also had lunch at McDonalds. Quote:Charged for 00:57:00 hours, total 41.78 KWh,22.49 per KWh, total 1,108.71 Started from this place at 2:50 pm and drove for 3 hours and 10 minutes. Stopped at a small mall called Society Mall. Arrived here at 5:55 pm. Just wanted to have a coffee, there was a charger as well, so charged as well. Quote:Charged for 00:18:00 hours, total 14.22 KWh,24.00 per KWh, total 402.71 Started from this place at 6:20 pm and continued towards Pathankot. Around this time, Google suggested going via Jammu, so I decided to go that way. Arrived in Pathankot at 7:02 pm. At this time, it was clear that I would reach Patnitop very, very late. I decided to have an early dinner here. I saw a mall called Pathankot Downtown 44. This also had a Tata charger. Even though at this I did not need charging but still decided to top up and have my dinner here. Quote:Charged for 00:33:00 hours, total 24.22 KWh,17.80 per KWh, total 508.72 This mall was pretty good. Decided to try some sandwiches and stuff. Pretty good. From here on, it was to be a continuous drive. Reached Jammu, got lost in Jammu and then finally continued towards Patnitop. Saw the majestic Vaishnodevi hills on the way. Drove for another four and a half hours and arrived in Patnitop, Skyview resort at 12:22 am. This place is great for EV travellers. They have both fast and slow chargers. I plugged in the car for the final time before reaching Srinagar and went to sleep. The distance remaining was not much, so I decided to take it easy for the last day. Also, if you stay at Skyview, they give a complimentary ride to the cable car from the resort to the top of the hill. This opens only at 10:30 am. So I decided that I would take the ride and then leave.07-May-2026 - Patnitop to Srinagar 150 kilometers, 3 hours 50 minutes Quote:Charged for 11:17:00 hours, total 58.02 KWh,17.80 per KWh, total 1,218.69 Left the Skyview hotel at 11:50 am and drove non-stop for 3 hours and 50 minutes and arrived in Srinagar at 3:40 pm. Here are the salient points of this effort. As you can see, I spent a total of approximately 10 hours 20 minutes charging these; around 3 hours were spent charging when I was not doing anything. This was the time completely wasted because I was driving an EV, and the charger that I had banked on did not work. If the Sheraton Indore charger was working and the Hotel Rajhans charger did not cause me worry, I would not have to spend this time. Finally, here is the dash screenshot. The kilometres and hours include the time that I spend going from Bengaluru to Kanyakumari as well. If we remove them, then it would be much less. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.