BYD eMax7 Owner’s 460 Km EV Road Trip Turns Into A Harrowing 28 Hour Nightmare

BYD EV Owner's 28 Hour Nightmare: It's Not The Car's Fault!

Every now and then, a Cartoq reader writes in with a story so raw and real that it deserves to be shared in full. This one comes from Jayaprakash, an EV enthusiast and the Managing Director of a Hyderabad-based IT form, who recently took his BYD eMax7 on what was supposed to be a peaceful family road trip from Hyderabad to Srisailam (230 Kms one way), and instead found himself battling range anxiety, charger failures, and a series of unexpected setbacks.

Jayaprakash had done his homework. PlugShare maps, planned charging halts, route calculations. He left Hyderabad at 7:31 AM with his family and a fully charged battery, confident and excited for the scenic forest-lined drive through Nallamala. But the last fast-charging station before the forest stretch, Ramachandra EV Station, was out of order. No power, no support, and no backup options.

Charging nightmare amplified

So began a chain reaction of problems. Though he pressed on and reached Srisailam with 25 percent battery, the return leg turned into a race against time and dwindling charge. The car’s range prediction behaved erratically in the hilly terrain.

At one point, every kilometre driven seemed to cost five kilometres of estimated range. Charging stations that were marked “active” turned out to be non-functional. Some were shut down for hours. Others had power issues. Several apps failed to connect or even open.

With two kids in the back seat and rain pouring steadily, Jayaprakash tried every trick to conserve power. AC off, music off, feather-light foot on the accelerator, maximum regeneration.

Another charger failed!

At one point, with just eight percent battery remaining, they reached a charging point only to find it offline due to a scheduled shutdown. A slow charger nearby became a temporary lifeline, providing just enough power after 90 minutes to reach the next station.

But even that hope was dashed. The next charger displayed a fault warning. Another EV pulled up, and in a twist of fate, it turned out they owned the station. The owner tried resetting it, but voltage fluctuations caused by a nearby agricultural line made charging impossible.

Roadside assistance? Limited coverage!

With no way to proceed and the car nearly out of power, Jayaprakash activated BYD's Roadside Assistance. But RSA had limitations. They would only cover part of the trip, and he was told the vehicle owner must stay behind while his family took a taxi.

That was a non-starter. Jayaprakash called his brother-in-law, who drove 100 kilometres in the middle of the night to collect the family. Alone, Jayaprakash waited for the tow truck. On the way back toward Hyderabad, they tried multiple stations. Some were unreachable.

One required an app that had been delisted from the Play Store due to a state code change. At the BYD service centre, the charger required a password only the service manager could provide.

He kept searching. Finally, a Tata charger nearby seemed to work, only to fail mid-process. He moved to another 2 km away. That too failed. He returned to the first Tata charger and, after a tense wait, it suddenly came online. The car began charging.

Thirty minutes later, with 48 percent battery, Jayaprakash drove home. He reached by 9 AM, 28 hours after setting out on a journey that should have taken half that time.

A weekend getaway turned into a relentless test of patience, preparation, and endurance. EVs may represent the future, but stories like this show that for now, the present is still a work in progress.