Just completed a 900km road trip in the new Mahindra XEV 9s (70kWh) - First impressions, real-world range, and the infrastructure nightmare.
Hey everyone,
Just wrapped up a 900km road trip with my family (wife and kids) in our new Mahindra XEV 9s (the Pack Two Above variant with the 70kWh battery). Having put some serious highway miles on this 7-seater, I wanted to share my honest first impressions—the good, the bad, and the frustrating.
The Verdict: A Generational Leap
Honestly, driving this car feels like a generational upgrade from my previous vehicle and most other options currently on the market. The drive quality is absolutely phenomenal. We did a long 6+ hour stretch, and I experienced zero fatigue or tiredness. More importantly, my wife and kids thoroughly enjoyed the space and the ride, which is the ultimate test for any family road trip.
The Tech & Cabin: Brilliant Features, Frustrating UX
The cabin is packed with excellent features, but Mahindra has seriously missed the mark on user experience. The triple-screen UI is incredibly cumbersome and far from user-friendly.
My biggest gripe? The complete lack of physical buttons.
Removing dedicated physical buttons for crucial functions like the 360-degree camera and the emergency/hazard lights is a major design flaw. Fumbling through a screen when you need to activate hazard lights or quickly check your surroundings on a busy road is highly impractical and honestly a safety issue.
Real-World Range & Range Anxiety
Claimed Range: 600 km (MIDC)
Reality: Anywhere between 380 km to 470 km on a full charge.
The range varies wildly based on external factors. On this trip, road quality, heavy rain, changing temperatures, and highway cruising speeds all caused massive fluctuations. This unpredictability creates a level of range anxiety like nothing else—you're constantly doing mental math while driving.
The Charging Infrastructure Nightmare
To put it mildly: the highway charging infrastructure is poor, and we need at least 10x better infrastructure than what exists today.
The Highways: National highways are generally fine, but state highways and tier-2/tier-3 cities are far from perfect. A lot of chargers listed on apps are either completely shut down or out of service.
Murphy’s Law: Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. At one point, I pulled into a charging station only to find out it was a restricted private facility.
The Speeds: When you do find a functional charger, many are stuck in the lower 60 kW range, which makes juicing up a large 70kWh pack incredibly time-consuming.
If you are someone who wants to have a car which is not the main part of your trip then you can go for an ICE vehicle. In case you don’t mind steep learning curve and adopting to these situations as they come and can plan the trip to perfection you are in the right company !