[drive_angry]

So, I am being called today for a PDI inspection today. Hoping that everything would be in ship shape.

Also, I am being hard-pressed to take insurance from Tata itself, I am being told that the insurance done from an external vendor doesn't have a warranty on the 55kw motor, and I should really be going for in-house insurance. The price they have quoted me is 25,000/- and the price from Acko insurance for comprehensive is 19,500/- Existing owners, any pointers, please?

Lastly, any add-ons that you may think are necessary? I might get good discount on accessories and hence asking. Thanks!

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by drive_angry

I am being told that the insurance done from an external vendor doesn't have a warranty on the 55kw motor!

Blatant lie. Insurance has nothing to do with warranty. But if they are giving engine protection add-on with the insurance, it will help in claiming insurance on the motor in some situations. However, note that engine cover can be added to Acko too.

The price they have quoted me is 25,000/- and the price from Acko insurance for comprehensive is 19,500/-

Not a lot of price difference in my opinion.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by drive_angry

Also, I am being hard-pressed to take insurance from Tata itself, I am being told that the insurance done from an external vendor doesn't have a warranty on the 55kw motor, and I should really be going for in-house insurance. The price they have quoted me is 25,000/- and the price from Acko insurance for comprehensive is 19,500/- Existing owners, any pointers, please?

I don't think warranty is the right word here. Warranty is provided by Tata irrespective of the insurance provider. The word is "insurance coverage". I think what they are trying to you is that some policies might not be tailored to an electric car and may not have the right coverage. You can check with Acko on the coverage related to electric motor and other critical components like BMS, MCU etc.

[drive_angry]

Originally Posted by Comrade

However, note that engine cover can be added to Acko too.



Not a lot of price difference in my opinion.

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

You can check with Acko on the coverage related to electric motor and other critical components like BMS, MCU etc.

Thanks for your response guys. Yes, they meant to say that these external insurance companies are too mainstream in insuring ICE vehicles that they don't have EV special coverage (or explicit mention anywhere in the insurance letter) and in the event of any motor-related issues, they would treat the part as an electric component rather than the 'engine' of the car, and will charge accordingly.


I did reach out to Acko, I asked them if they would mention that the 55KW motor would be covered as a whole in the insurance, The quote that I got did mention the make and model of the vehicle correctly but it doesn't mention the motor coverage explicitly (Do they really have to?). However, Tata folks have assured me that their insurance letter would mention everything explicitly. As Comrade pointed out, since the difference is not that much does it make sense to go with Tata for the peace of mind?

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by drive_angry

Thanks for your response guys. Yes, they meant to say that these external insurance companies are too mainstream in insuring ICE vehicles that they don't have EV special coverage (or explicit mention anywhere in the insurance letter) and in the event of any motor-related issues, they would treat the part as an electric component rather than the 'engine' of the car, and will charge accordingly.


I did reach out to Acko, I asked them if they would mention that the 55KW motor would be covered as a whole in the insurance, The quote that I got did mention the make and model of the vehicle correctly but it doesn't mention the motor coverage explicitly (Do they really have to?). However, Tata folks have assured me that their insurance letter would mention everything explicitly. As Comrade pointed out, since the difference is not that much does it make sense to go with Tata for the peace of mind?

Neithor Acko nor any other insurance provider has any specific policy wording specific to EV's as of now. However, if the dealer is quoting 25K for a zero dep insurance, i would go with that (assuming its from a reputed insurance provider) over ACKO. 25k is decent pricing. I myself got Royal sundaram from outside for my top end tiago for 28K. I specifically went with RS due to my long standing hassle free relationship with them for my other cars but i would easily go ahead with HDFC ergo or tata aig or any of the other reputed players if they were cheaper.

Everything else the Showroom tells you is bluff... I avoided ACKO due to lot of unknowns and having heard that they force owners to go with 3rd party garages so that their payout is lower. One such incident came to light a couple of months ago where an EV caught fire and TATA claimed that the fire was due to unauthorized repair.

[sary]

Originally Posted by abc_xyz

I will provide further updates as and when they are available.

Hi, Any further update on this issue?

I think I am in same boat as you. My Tiago EV was delivered earlier this month (Aug'23) and a day after delivery, similar noise started appearing from front wheel while driving. The car is at Authorized Dealers workshop for about 4 days now. The SA confirmed, today Tata vendor inspected the car and suggested e-Drive replacement. The dealer has confirmed that part will be ordered today and they will keep me posted when it would potentially arrive.
For now, on my request, the dealer has given spare Nexon petrol vehicle registered on dealer name which I could use until my car is returned.

[GTE]

While Tata may have improved from the days when they started & supplied trucks disguised as passenger cars, they have a long way to go before reaching the Japanese / Koreans. Unfortunately they still think it's okay to treat buyers like Guinea pigs.

[abc_xyz]

Originally Posted by sary

Hi, Any further update on this issue?

Hi. Still waiting for the part to be delivered. It is expected to be delivered by the next Saturday. But, this is one of the many Saturdays and Mondays and Tuesdays that have passed and the material was not delivered.

Let's see what happens this time.

[abc_xyz]

Today morning, i encountered the HV Critical error. Since I was in a hurry to go to work, I used my ICE Vehicle. Later in the day, I called the Service Executive at Tata Motors workshop and told him that I have encountered this error. He enquired with someone and called me an hour later.

He asked me to disconnect and reconnect the LV battery terminal. He told me that this action resets the bms and this should resolve my problem.

I asked my dad to do this. When he started the car without doing the reset, it started without any error. My dad even travelled for about 5 kms with a few starts and stops in between. The car worked absolutely fine.

My doubt is, whether this problem will recur. I use the ev for my daily commute of 50 kms one way and I am afraid I may get stranded.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by abc_xyz

My doubt is, whether this problem will recur. I use the ev for my daily commute of 50 kms one way and I am afraid I may get stranded.

I will recommend going to the SC and asking them to connect the laptop and check the error thrown. It would be logged in the faults.

[crodjer]

Originally Posted by crodjer

Got the vehicle delivered yesterday.

....

Will share more updates when I find something interesting.

The car is amazing to drive. No non-EV that I have test driven responds like this one. I find it odd that when comparing EVs, people consider the price premium as a negative while the price premium for ICE cars for a better engine/drive train is okay.

Tata should instead sell it as an amazing driving experience, which is reasonably priced while also being economical in the long run. A Citroen dealer tried to push me for the ICE car based on my (low) running numbers. And I find it funny, because from that logic all low running folks should just buy an Alto. EV sales folks should sell the driving experience, with the fuel/cost savings as a plus.

There were a few issues that I encountered as well:

I got my ZConnect activated (8 days after delivery) and feels pretty much like a gimmick, no utility day-to-day.

• It would be useful in an emergency situation when I forget to lock the key in the car. It can happen in (non XZ+ Lux) Tiago as the boot is independent of car-lock.
• The app logs you out every two days, rendering the geo-fencing notification useless and the app is readily unavailable right when needed.
• Pre-coolling doesn't work and I am not going to try to get it to work. As someone in the software industry, I refuse to interact with such crap-ware daily.
• OTP is the _sole_ authentication mechanism. So, if you know someone has a Tata EV and what their phone number is, all you have to do is get a duplicate SIM (trivial) and volla they have access to your car. But at least they won't be damaging it while stealing it, so that's a plus. I am a software engineer and know for a fact that SMS-based OTP isn't safe even as a 2nd factor, let alone it being just one factor.
• At some point I'd like to figure out a way to completely de-activate ZConnect so that my car can't be stolen with a fake SIM. Moreover, SMS as a technology was an afterthought and never meant to be a secure medium.

Wheel alignment was off from factory.

• On my first non-congestion drive, I realized that the wheel alignment was off. I'd have to keep pulling the steering toward the left to go straight.
• I had the same issue with my Petrol Tiago as well in 2019. Is bad wheel alignment a general Tata car thing? Perhaps other owners could share their experience, or maybe keep an eye out now if you notice it
• Although I didn't want to use my dealership's service center, I did in this case and paid dearly in my time. I reached their center at 9:30 (their opening time) and they handed me over the car at 3:30 PM. From the glass I could see that they did the alignment and test drives thrice - still not okay to take 6 hours for this on a weekday.
• For future services, I'll anyway not be using this service center as my original plan. I did it in this case as there were a few things pending on them still and I may need them for any major early issues.

Bad fit and finish. I really expected this and it's true.

• The paint quality isn't good - there are fragments which are uneven.
• Roof upholstery is ugly from the corners and one can clearly see threads dangling. My old Tiago petrol had this as well.
• Doors don't close easily. It is particularly an issue with the child lock, as I have to get down and close it again every time we are ready to leave for somewhere.
• Dangling wires - well everyone knows this is how Tata chose to do things.
• The rubber mats that I got don't fit right. At some point, I'll look for alternative mats which fit. This perhaps is the dealership's fault.

[swami69]

An update on my Tiago .EV XT LR at 1400 kms

The car went for its first service, picked and dropped free of cost by the Tata dealer. Just some lubrication, general Checkup, no software updates this time and vehicle returned. Only negative was - I guess the driver ripped the car while taking it on a 40 km up/down trip to the service centre and the Wh/km was at 158 :( for that drive. Else, everything was good. So far, the car behaves and drives nicely and it is fun to drive in city traffic. The Air Conditioner is also very nice and it cools nicely if we keep the blower speed at 3.

August Statistics

1089.0 kms
Regeneration efficiency : 20.2%
Energy Efficiency : 96.9 Wh/Km

Hope it continues to perform without much glitches.

Swami

[vj_v3]

Originally Posted by crodjer

[b][*]At some point I'd like to figure out a way to completely de-activate ZConnect so that my car can't be stolen with a fake SIM. Moreover, SMS as a technology was an afterthought and never meant to be a secure medium.

You can just disconnect the telematics unit under the passenger seat and your car is no longer connected to the cloud. There is a separate battery inside the telematics unit which will eventually discharge fully and probably die if left discharged for a long time, so ideal to disconnect the battery as well. Mind you, the battery connector is a but flimsy, so dont pull hard.

However, i would suggest leaving the telematics connect for year 1 so that there is data about your charge and discharge patterns etc for troubleshooting purposes. A lot of people have been getting HV errors and in most cases based on the telematics data it is evident that people who don't go to low SOC often, do opportunity charging etc have been facing issues. Even service centers will find good use for telematics data, else they might take longer to troubleshoot.

I will most like not pay and subscribe to the zconnect subscription after 1 year but will leave it working until then.

[crodjer]

Originally Posted by vj_v3

You can just disconnect the telematics unit under the passenger seat and your car is no longer connected to the cloud. There is a separate battery inside the telematics unit which will eventually discharge fully and probably die if left discharged for a long time, so ideal to disconnect the battery as well. Mind you, the battery connector is a but flimsy, so dont pull hard.

However, i would suggest leaving the telematics connect for year 1 so that there is data about your charge and discharge patterns etc for troubleshooting purposes. A lot of people have been getting HV errors and in most cases based on the telematics data it is evident that people who don't go to low SOC often, do opportunity charging etc have been facing issues. Even service centers will find good use for telematics data, else they might take longer to troubleshoot.

I will most like not pay and subscribe to the zconnect subscription after 1 year but will leave it working until then.

Thanks! I'll keep this in mind. Yes, I don't plan to do this right away - but I will do it eventually as this thing is a security nightmare.

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by crodjer

I got my ZConnect activated (8 days after delivery) and feels pretty much like a gimmic, no utility day-to-day.

• It would be useful in an emergency situation when I forget lock the key in the car. It can happen in (non XZ+ Lux) Tiago as the boot is independent of car-lock.

Not even this, I have tried lock/unlock several times and it never worked, just like you found out with pre-cooling. So don't count on this unless you find it working consistently for you.

I have found only the following marginal benefits:

• When charging at home or normal 15A plug, you can see the SoC % from the app instead of going to the car. When you do DC charging, mostly the charging app will show it, so not useful there.
• If you try multiple times, SoC charging limit can be set. This is useful if don't want to charge to 100%. But this is a one time thing, so if the power goes and comes back, that is considered a new charging session and it will charge to 100%.
• Trip history will give some useful statistic, like top speed, average speed, km/wh, hard breaking, etc. Useful to monitor when someone else is driving, car pickup/drop and valet parking.
• Car location, this is the only feature that works reliably.