[Samba]

Pros-

1) A well built car. Nexon got 5* safety rating in the crash test earlier.

2) Its fun to drive. There is no lag & the car pulls cleanly. Be a bit careless, wheel spins like crazy!

3) The suspension is well tuned. The car is comfortable over rough patches, as well as the handling is equally good. Body roll is well sorted. I found it less bumpier than the Diesel Nexon.

4) The music system will please the majority of the buyers.

5) Compared to it's competitors, starting at Rs 13.99L makes this car the most value for money.

6) Interiors are good and felt nicely put-together.

7) Decently feature loaded.

8) 205 mm ground clearance can tackle the bad roads with aplomb.

9) Low running cost of an EV.

10) The color choices have been tastefully chosen. Looks good in all the 3 shades available (Blue, white, silver).

Cons-

1) The real world range is around 250 km in 'D' mode but if driven spiritedly in 'S' mode it drastically comes down to below 190 km. Will drop even further if driven aggressively.

2) Could find few small panel gaps or rough edges.

3) Ergonomics could have been better. Eg the placement of the 12v socket or the driver side hand-rest and few more.

4) Tyre noise and the whine of the electric motor is audible. Unless I drive the Hyundai Kona or the Mg ZS, I will reserve my opinion on the overall NVH level.

5) Electronic cutoff to avoid wheel-spin should have been provided.

6) Upgrading to a better tyre is recommended. The stock tyres lose grip much earlier than the chassis gives up.

7) White door pads, or white leather seats in the top trim will require regular attention to keep them clean.

8) Long term reliability is unknown for this car.

9) Auto up/down on the drivers side power window is missing.

10) The high floor-pan in rear hinders the comfort of the passenger seating in the middle.

Prelude-

Mr. Rik Chatterjee (Product specialist for Nexon Ev east) & Mr. Sourav Chatterjee (Territory sales manager) from Tata invited Bhpian arindam_xeta to test drive the Nexon EV and give some feedback on the car. Me being a very close friend of Bhpian arindam_xeta, I was also invited for the same.

We were with the car for more than 4 hours and drove quite a good distance within the city, as well as on open roads too.

Few facts about the car

This car comes with a 30.2 kWh battery which claims to give a range of 317 km. In real condition while driving in 'D' mode the range is around 250 km and in 'S' mode it's around 190-200 km. The battery can be charged to 80% in just 60 minutes with a fast DC charger, whereas it will take more than 8 hours from a household socket.

The Nexon EV is 150-200 kg heavier than the Nexon Diesel. But this car comes with a single gear with 245 NM of instant torque and 129 ps of power. This ensures it to be quite a fun car.

The costlier MG ZS EV or the Hyundai Kona costs 20-24L on road whereas this car starts from around Rs 15L on road. The MG ZS or the Kona will enjoy a range of 100+ km more, but nothing can beat the Nexon in the value for money factor.

A small comparison between the three-



My take on the car-

This car comes in 3 variants- XM, XZ+, XZ+LUX

Our test drive car was the XZ+

A smart watch to greet us.



This color looks stunning. My wife loved this color too. There is nothing new to write on the exterior design of the Nexon.





A full Led setup would have looked more premium!



The Interior

Am not the right person to comment on the interiors, but I kind of felt it to be nice.

The seats are quite comfortable and supportive. The leg-space in rear and front is decent.

The A/C was a chiller.

The music system should satisfy the need of the majority.

The ergonomics was more or less okay, leaving one or two sore spots. Like the position of the 12v socket or the drivers hand-rest were not quite comfortable to use. Would have preferred the hand rest in a bit more forward and a bit upward position for the driver to rest his left arm.

The top variant comes with white leather seats.







In the long run it will be tough to keep the door pads clean.



350 L of boot space. The charging cable is kept inside the boot.



The flat bottom steering was nice to hold.



Instrument cluster looks good with all the essential info's on display.



The Drive-

The real world range is around 250 km in 'D' mode but if driven spiritedly in 'S' mode it drastically comes down to below 190 km. Will drop even further if driven aggressively.
By aggressively driving for 20 km, the range came down to 195 km from 232 km in sports mode. The battery showed 78% from 93%. So on aggressive driving for 20 km the dip was 15% with regards to charge and 38 km in range. The range makes the Nexon EV, strictly a city car.

With light foot driving in Drive mode the drop in charge and range was in acceptable range.

The driver can chose the driving mode through this knob. The brake pedal must be pressed to change the mode by using this rotary knob. Once the mode is set, releasing the brake pedal starts the vehicle to crawl without any accelerator input.



A comfortable foot-well with a dead pedal.



129 PS engine with 245 NM instant torque with a single speed gear ensured there is no lag and the car pulls cleanly right from the word go. Tata claims a 0-100 timing of 9.9 second, I have not tested that, but the way this car pulls, I wont be surprised if it can hit 100 km/hr even below that! The D mode is more that adequate in city but the S mode is real fun. A bit of over acceleration and the tyre screeches like crazy. Electronic cutoff to avoid wheel-spin should have been provided at-least with a turn on/off option.

While starting from a signal it's easy to keep the traffic behind without working much on the accelerator. In one word, this car is fun to drive. It's fast. The top-speed was electronically limited to 120 km/hr, so couldn't test it beyond that on open roads.

It pulls cleanly all throughout with an even acceleration. Its not like a weak low-end or strong mid-range, the pull is even throughout the range.

Tyre noise and the whine of the electric motor is audible under acceleration, unless I drive the Hyundai Kona or the Mg ZS, I will reserve my opinion on the overall NVH level. Though I must say the vibration and harshness is not there, they are well sorted.

The engine bay looks neat.


On a twisty flyover within the city, I maintained the line and pushed the car a bit, the tyres screeched crazily. The tyres gave up much before the chassis gives up. Upgrading the tyres are recommended.

Even these 215/60/R16 are not enough to handle the instant torque of this car. A better set of rubbers can do wonders. Torque-steer was felt under hard acceleration, but then again its a FWD car. A better set of rubbers will take care of that to some extent.



The suspension is quite well tuned. The ride is not bumpy, its quite comfortable on bad roads, plus this car can be pushed through the corners confidently. I loved throwing this car around the corners. The body-roll is well sorted. Tata has got the set-up just right. Bhpian arindam_xeta commented this car to be much more comfortable on bad roads than his Nexon diesel.

The steering weighs up in sports mode and gives adequate feedback in respect to EPS standard.

The braking feels progressive and confidence inspiring. The pedal feel is good, it's not spongy or soft. The front got Disc and the rear got drum brakes. All four discs would have been even better.

The battery pack is placed in the middle of the floor, and it's a heavy unit. Still Tata managed to give a ground clearance of 205 mm.
But the high floor-pan in rear hinders the comfort of the passenger seating in the middle.



The underbelly looks neat and there are no unwanted protrusions which can get damaged on an underbelly hit. The underbelly looks well protected.

The ground-clearance and the approach angle are more than adequate for a car whose majority of the life will be spent in city driving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plKZCuynmwE

My verdict-

1) It does make sense for people who are looking to buy an automatic city car with a budget of around Rs 15-16L.

2) The sub 4 meter length will ensure ease of parking, whereas the EV will ensure cheaper running cost. Tata claims the running cost to be Rs 1 per km.

3) The long term reliability of this car is unknown to us, but the 8 years or 160,000 km warranty on the battery & motor with 3 Year or 1,25,000 km vehicle warranty should ensure some peace of mind. Plus the resale value of EV's in Indian is still unknown to us.

4) It's a fun to drive car. Weekend morning breakfast meets can be fun in this car! It can actually keep-up with a Polo GT TSI or an Abarth Punto in 0-100 sprints. The single gear ensures there is no lag either.
Do make sure, if it's a spirited drive, it should be in a range of 100-150 km, not more than that. Else while returning back home, the anxiety of getting stranded by exhausting the battery will creep in!

5) Overall this is the best TATA car i drove till date. My favorites were the Nexon diesel and the Hexa AWD, but this EV exceeded my expectation. (I never drove the JTP's, so this statement may not stand 100% correct.)

[Shreyans_Jain]

Can you please tell us for how many km did you drive the vehicle? What was the battery % at the start and at the end of the drive? Did you stop and charge the car during your drive? How much was the average power consumption km/kWh?

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Samba

Tata claims a 0-100 timing of 9.9 second

As far as I still see, VW's 1000cc engine makes it at the same time, at 1/3rd less cost!!

[avishar]

Originally Posted by 1100D

As far as I still see, VW's 1000cc engine makes it at the same time, at 1/3rd less cost!!

Yes, but you are not taking into lifetime costs (fuel + maintenance).

It will cost a person around Rs 250 to fully charge a Nexon at home. With that full charge and with a conservative city range of 250 km, it is a fraction of what it will cost per km to run the same car on petrol or diesel. Twenty litres of diesel - on the other hand - will cost Rs 1500+.

Plus, you don't need to replace engine oil, air filters, oil filters etc. However, I think electric cars do need some sort of coolant though (?).

Maybe not for enthusiasts or for those whose daily running is quite high, but I certainly can see the advantages of an electric car. Even taking into account a sort of buffer, 250 km is enough to cater to 4-5 days of running. But one does not even need to think that much, just charge put it on charge every night and be greeted with a full tank everyday. No need to worry about fuel pump visits!

CONS: Will require atleast a dedicated parking space in a secure location if not an enclosed garage. Also will require owners to sort out an electric connection in the garage if it isn't there already.

If Maruti comes out with an affordable WagonR EV (Rs 6-8 lakhs), I think EV cars will take off fast in India.

[Samba]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Can you please tell us for how many km did you drive the vehicle? What was the battery % at the start and at the end of the drive? Did you stop and charge the car during your drive? How much was the average power consumption km/kWh?

We actually drove 2 Nexon EV's. One from the first showroom to another showroom and drove another Nexon EV.
The first Nexon Ev was driven for 20 km in sports mode. The charge came down from 93% to 78% and the range came down from 232 km to 195 km.

Sharing the images-

Before starting


After 20 km of driving.


On the 2nd Nexon Ev, I have not checked the data. But nowhere it was required to charge it.

Originally Posted by 1100D

As far as I still see, VW's 1000cc engine makes it at the same time, at 1/3rd less cost!!

But the customer base are different.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by 1100D

As far as I still see, VW's 1000cc engine makes it at the same time, at 1/3rd less cost!!

That might be a fact. But comparing just one parameter in isolation might not be prudent. For my curiosity, are you referring to Polo? If yes, aren't these two different segments.

Also, upfront costs of an EV is going to be undoubtedly higher right now so point taken there. But let us compare the entire package rather than just 0-100 dash times.

[1100D]

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[GTO]

Thanks for the awesome review, Samba! Moving to the EV section & going to our homepage today

[wheelguy]

Thanks sir for the cool review.

Originally Posted by Samba

Pros-

1) A well built car. Nexon got 5* safety rating in the crash test earlier.

2) Its fun to drive. There is no lag & the car pulls cleanly. Be a bit careless, wheel spins like crazy!

There's another pro, we don't have to use the brakes as often as we do in the regular ICE cars for slowing down, that's really cool and also almost doubles the life of brakes. Also when I drove it, felt the regen to be not so aggressive, heard somewhere that regen actually adjusts itself automatically according the state-of-charge(SOC) in the battery.

Cons-

Adding one to the list from my short drive experience, it could have been better if the drive selection knob doesn't rotate 360 degrees or at least have some sort of indicator on the knob itself.

The costlier MG ZS EV or the Hyundai Kona costs 20-24L on road whereas this car starts from around Rs 15L on road. The MG ZS or the Kona will enjoy a range of 100+ km more, but nothing can beat the Nexon in the value for money factor.

A small comparison between the three-

Attachment 2022576

Small correction, neither eZS nor Kona start at onroad 20L, eZS comes for around ~22L and Kona for ~25L if we add 1 lakh to the ex-showroom price.

We were told by the Tata guys that another version of the Nexon EV is on the way, which will have a range of 500 km. That version will be priced below 20L on road.

Wow, that bridges the range gap between Nexon EV and Kona/eZS, we can expect a real world range of 350KM which is on-par or better than its competitors. This makes it an even more compelling package.

Overall, Nexon EV fits perfectly for those who already had an ICE car and are looking for another one for in-city use with some 150~200KM occasional drives. Presently, there is no other practical EV at this price range.

[123.rishabh]

I got to drive the Kona EV (almost 50 Kms) and the Nexon EV (10 Kms), and I realised that in order to get a decent range from an electric vehicle we need to change our driving style. Driving with foresight and avoiding unnecessary bursts of acceleration when you see there is a speed breaker or a signal ahead and understanding how to use the regenerative braking in our favor will be very helpful to increase the range. (Regen on the nexon feels strong as there were no options to increase or decrease it)

In my opinion a real world driving range of 200-250 Km should be sufficient for driving inside the city without worrying about getting stranded on the road

[charanreddy]

Makes tremendous sense as a second city run about car. Also there are specific use cases for a few businessmen who may be required to commute 150 kms in a day where this car will pay for the investment difference in fuel saved in a short time frame. I know of a friend who needs to shuttle between his farms daily and has a 150 kms journey and currently uses a petrol automatic .

As a primary car, I don’t think electrics are there yet and range anxiety will kick in and always be at the back of our mind.

[NTO]

That is an amazing quick review. Thank you Samba. Enjoyed reading it. Car seems to be super fun to drive. This can be a good weekday car to anyone with a 40 km/day work week. 250/5 = 50 rupees per day is a lot cheaper than any public transport.
The affordable entry price point along with practicality will encourage a lot of early adopters to make the shift towards EVs.
Also, the biggest apprehension against TATA, the after sales service, shouldn't be a concern considering this car does not require many constant routine maintenance things.

[Sujoy76]

First of all congrats. You managed to test drive a car during this pandemic.

The Cons have been carried forward from the ICE models I guess IMHO given the stats, it should be a successful product within few years. People with daily commuting range between 100-150 kms can seriously consider this as an option. I have a few questions:

How does the car drive in D mode? You have previously driven the ICE version. So is it just like the ECO mode from the ICE or a mix of ECO and CITY. As you said for changing the mode you need to press the brake pedal, is there any speed limit for this?

Loved your review. Still not an option for road trippers I guess.

[swarnava.ch]

Thanks a lot Samba for this wonderful review.
I have wanted to take a test drive of the Nexon EV for some time however due to the situation currently thought of posponing the same.
If they come out with a 500 kms range car, I will definitely pick up this over a regular ICE car as i love driving Electric for a daily commute and as you said 500 Kms range should be enough to address range anxiety.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by 1100D

As far as I still see, VW's 1000cc engine makes it at the same time, at 1/3rd less cost!!

We shouldn't compare an EV to an ICE car. But if we compare it that way, we may have to bring into picture the running costs per KM. Nexon EV at spirited driving may cost around Rs.1.2 per KM. Polo TSI at spirited driving may cost Rs.10 per KM.

Thanks you Samba for a detailed review. This car really deserves success. It is full 9-10 lakhs cheaper than the other two EVs and has much better ground clearance than the duo.

There are many even in big cities whose daily driving is 20-30 Kms a day. Such folks will be needing to charge this only once a week, even with spirited drives and stop and go crawl. Those commuting 150 Kms one way can also buy this car, provided they spend 4-5 hours at the other end. This would be enough to top up the half-gone range and be ready for a comfortable return trip. The savings on a 300 KM daily run would be phenomenal.