What is EV Grids?
EV Grids is an independent charging-stop planner for electric road trips. You enter an origin, a destination, and a vehicle preset. The product returns ranked DC fast-charging stops along the driving path, estimates state of charge (SOC) between those stops, and then opens Google Maps with the chargers you selected as waypoints. It is not a navigation app. It does not start a charging session. It does not reserve a stall.
It plans any same-country trip worldwide — origin and destination just have to be in the same country, within about 2,800 km per leg. Charging costs are shown in the local currency, so a German trip is priced in euros and a US one in dollars rather than rupees. What is India-specific is the writing: the corridor guides, monsoon and ghat advice, and network notes are deepest on Indian highways, because that is where we have the most charger data.
The audience is drivers who already own an EV — Tata, Mahindra, MG, Hyundai, Kia, BYD, Tesla and other presets — and need to cross a long distance in it. The problem is simple to name and hard to do well: a normal car route planner optimizes minutes on the road. An EV trip is an energy-and-queue problem. Brochure range is a lab number. Chargers sit off the highway, close without notice, or have the wrong connector. If you only follow a blue line, you discover that at 18% SOC.
That is why each stop is a small cluster: a primary recommendation plus backup chargers. You pick the guns you actually want. SOC and range are estimates from your preset Wh/km, start SOC, search threshold, and reserve floor — not a live feed from the battery. When the list looks right, Maps takes over turn-by-turn. Planning works without an account. Optional Google sign-in only syncs saved trips. EV Grids is not affiliated with automakers or charging networks; vehicle names are presets, and operator names describe public sites.
How EV Grids plans charging stops
- Origin and destination. City names or typed places. Optional via points and round-trip. A vehicle preset fills connectors, rated range, and a typical highway Wh/km. You can override Wh/km, start SOC, reserve, search threshold, trip mode, overnight bias, and a max ₹/kWh cap.
- Driving route. The API asks Google Directions for the driving polyline (OpenRouteService when configured). Chargers are judged against that path, not a straight line between cities. Long routes may be chunked so discovery stays fast. Repeat city pairs may be cached.
- Charger discovery. Stations near sampled points on the corridor — cached listings plus live Places / OpenChargeMap where needed. Sites far from the driving path are filtered even if they look close on a map.
- Connector compatibility. The preset’s inlet (typically CCS2 on recent Indian highway EVs, plus Type 2 where relevant) excludes slow AC-only sites when you are planning highway DC stops.
- Range and SOC estimation. Two related numbers. Energy along the route is Wh/km × distance on the polyline, and pack energy is implied from the preset's rated range against a reference vehicle (60 kWh ≈ 400 km rated). Usable planning range is the preset's rated range multiplied by a real-world highway margin of 0.85 — so a 400 km rated car is planned at roughly 340 km before terrain. With adjust for conditions enabled, the terrain and weather factor multiplies on top (for example 0.85 × 0.88 ≈ 0.75). Arrival % on a stop card is that walk, not a reading from your battery management system.
- Search threshold. Default 30% SOC. When estimated SOC would fall through this level, the planner looks for DC before you would hit the reserve floor.
- Reserve SOC. Default 20%. The arrival floor you do not want to cross — closed site, wrong turn, last unlit kilometre after a toll.
- Charger scoring. The weights the product actually uses: detour 0.30, charging power 0.25, ratings 0.20, operational status 0.10, amenities 0.10, reliability prior 0.05. Applied only in the relevant mode: estimated ₹/kwh 0.12, lodging nearby 0.10, reported-busy penalty -0.12. Ratings come from the underlying map listings, not from EV Grids reviews.
- Primary charger. The top-scoring reachable site at that trigger becomes the recommendation.
- Backup charger. Nearby alternatives on the same leg so you can swap if the primary is queued, offline, or the wrong connector.
- Full-trip chain validation. Swapping a backup re-checks later legs so stop 2 cannot strand stop 3. If a cheaper but farther gun breaks reachability, the UI can prompt a chain fix.
The long version is How EV Grids plans your route and How EV Grids works.
Why backup chargers matter
Highway DC in India is improving and still brittle. A listed site can be occupied by a queue of SUVs. A gun can be offline. The CCS2 bay can be the one that is broken while Type 2 is free. The plaza can be gated, under renovation, or on the opposite carriageway with no U-turn. Temporary outages do not always update on maps. None of that is visible as a guaranteed lock on a stall.
EV Grids therefore treats a stop as a cluster: pick a primary and at least one backup before you leave. If the primary is dark, navigate to the backup waypoint you already chose — do not invent a new plan on the shoulder. Keep operator apps logged in. Prefer multi-gun hubs on long weekends. Believe your dashboard over any website. More on that habit: backup chargers and chain checks and dead, busy, or wrong-connector chargers.
Understanding EV range
Advertised range is a certification figure. Highway range is an energy budget: Wh per kilometre times distance, minus the reserve you refuse to spend. Speed raises aerodynamic load. Temperature changes HVAC and battery resistance. AC and heating are not free. Hills and ghats spend energy climbing and do not fully return it on the way down. Traffic can help (lower speed) or hurt (creep with climate on). Wind and payload matter. Driving style — especially 110 km/h with a roof box — will not match a lab cycle.
EV Grids does not invent a secret efficiency number for your car. The preset Wh/km is a planning default. If your last highway day burned more, type that Wh/km. Raise reserve and search threshold in heat, monsoon, and ghats. Details: range and SOC.
Popular EV routes
Named corridors exist so you can read the road before you burn a plan quota — distance, highway notes, where charging gets sparse, and a Plan now button. Examples:
Browse the full route directory. Weak or unfinished corridor pages stay available as utilities but are not treated as search landing pages.
EV road trip guides
Longer articles — first highway days, SOC and backups, NH44, ghats, monsoon — live under guides. Start with your first long EV road trip, SOC and reserve, and the methodology.
Data accuracy
Charger availability is not guaranteed. Pricing can change and is labelled indicative unless a live tariff is actually present. Road conditions change. SOC calculations are estimates from your inputs. Users should verify critical stops in the operator app before departure and keep a backup charging option on every long leg. Accuracy limits: charger data. Corrections: contact.
