Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Bangalore - Pondicherry - Bangalore road trip in EV Hyundai Kona in end March 2021

Akhil Venkateshwaran did a Bangalore-Chennai-Pondicherry-Bangalore trip in end March 2021. Bangalore-Chennai-Pondy is well travelled, and lots of info available, hence will skip this route. 
Took the Pondy-Tindivanam-Gingee-Tiruvannamalai-Chengam-Singarapettai-Thirupatthur-Krishnagiri-Bangalore.
Left at the French Quarter at 2.30PM, reached Vijayanagar, Bangalore by 9.30PM with a 45 minute stop at Krishnagiri to charge my Hyundai Kona and for food. 

Observations: 
Pondy-Tindivanam : Smooth roads, sparse traffic, till Tindivanam town, which took about 5-10 minutes to cross.
Tindivanam-Gingee-Tiruvannamalai: Again, good surface throughout, with some small potholes here and there. Nothing to note, can very easily keep to 80-90kph in this stretch.
Tiruvannamalai-Singarapettai: Some diversions, potholes, and rough surfaces due to ongoing construction work, around 15km before Singarapettai. Not a major problem at all.
Singarapettai-Thirupatthur-Bargur-Krishnagiri: Singarapettai to Bargur is very scenic, butter smooth roads, although with lots of speedbreakers. Really enjoyed a countryside drive, lined with huge trees and fields on both sides of the road, after a long time. 
The most popular route between Bangalore-Pondicherry these days is through Arcot-Vandavasi, and while that probably has higher average speeds, it is 40 km longer than the above route. 
Posting this as a viable option for people who don't want to travel the extra distance.
Total cost of fuel for the full 911km circuit: Rs. 845/-. Breakup and a photo of the Kona charging up at Zeon charging station in Krishnagiri attached.

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