Mahindra Reva Goodness Drive Review: Mumbai-Pune Leg

A few weeks back, Mahindra flagged off a first-of-its-kind all-electric expedition from Kashmir to Kanyakumari with the e2o. Christened the ‘Goodness Drive’, the expedition of three e2os was flagged off by Arvind Mathew, CEO of Mahindra Reva, in the presence of former Sri Lankan cricketer Arvinda de Silva on November 16. As the expedition arrives in Mumbai, we get a chance to be a part of this epic journey by driving the one of the three e2os from Mumbai to Pune.

The lack of infrastructure in India has been one of the prime reasons for the limited development of electric vehicles here. And that is exactly why a lot of people shy away from purchasing the Mahindra e2o. With this Goodness Drive from Kashmir to Kanyakumari Mahindra wants to clear all myths about the driving range of an EV.

So, as the expedition arrived in Mumbai, with our batteries completely charged (pun intended), we set off to Pune. The first thing I noticed was that the Mahindra e2o was absolutely noiseless. For an auto enthusiast like me who has a thing for loud pipes, this was indeed a welcome change.

Considering that we started early the highway to Pune was fairly unpopulated. We could easily maintain speeds of about 70kmph and still consume energy pretty efficiently. The regen system on the e2o was really put to good use especially on some downhill sections. This system not only stops consumption of power on a downhill, in fact it helps recharge the battery. Although at a pace that we are generally not used to driving, especially on the Express Highway, the e2o climbed up the ghats of Lonavala to our breakfast destination with quite some juice left. However, since we halted for a bite, we decided to charge them, just in case. For those who are wondering, the e2o just needs a simple 15amp plug point for charging. Soon after that, we continued on to Pune and arrived at our destination with close to 20 per cent charge left.