Breaking the I.C.E.

We take the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and the Mercedes-Benz EQC through the stunning but range-sapping Himalayan winter

- TUHIN GUHA

I’ve had a fair few years on the face of this planet, but I’m assuming that like many others in our vast, largely hot country, have never really seen snow in its natural setting. One of life’s weird quirks but the wait was worth it, given that this time on our annual Winter Drive, I wasn’t just breaking new ground for myself. We were also breaking new ground for EV road tripping in India.

The Plan

When we brought the Audi e-tron up to Leh last year, it was truly uncharted territory. We set up the necessary infrastructure as we went along, facing problems we’ve never encountered before on a familiar route and finding solutions, quite literally on the fly. But as difficult as it was, we did manage to meet our objectives. And since an OVERDRIVE Winter Drive story needs a cold, snow-strewn setting that celebrates the cars as much as the journey, a different challenge was necessary. So it only made sense to up the ante and bring all three of the established luxury EVs - the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes-Benz EQC - you can buy in India right now to the almost heavenly locales around Manali.

The route plan was fairly straightforward. Start from Chandigarh with the three electric SUVs fully topped up and head on to the newly set-up fast charger at Sundar Nagar at a comfortable 160 km away. Then do the toughest 134 km section up to The Himalayan in Manali where we would top up all three cars again before heading higher up looking for snow. On the face of it, easily doable even with a most conservative 250 to 300 km range estimate for all three cars, accounting for the largely uphill route.