[JayPrashanth]

We have a Tiago.EV in the family that's done about 60,000 Kms in about 15 months. Fast charging on hot days brings the error, and the car needs to cool down for an hour before the trip can be resumed.

The car is used both for intra-city and inter-city trips in a 70:30 ratio. While fuel cost savings are substantial, the inconvenience of the EV experience (charging, HV errors) is undeniable. EVs are not yet ready for heavy highway use in India, at least the ones from Tata Motors.

And I'm not even getting into the number of times we've had to wait outside EV charging stations because of someone in an ICE car blocking the charging point unknowingly, or power cuts on the highway, or EV chargers simply not working.

Cheers,

Jay

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

This is not an infra issue for a EV but a product issue. The same situation could be faced by any car be it ICE or EV where a critical component and just go limp. The person has done 65000 km in a year and half and would that have been possible without infra. Bad mouthing the country is a fashion these days.

EV charging infra is terrible beyond popular highway routes. And it's not a component or a car specific issue. Picture this. Our car was stuck outside a MG dealership for a couple of hours in Pondicherry because the EV charging point was blocked by a ICE car. This dealership has security guards 24X7, like most car dealerships. On a drive to Mysuru, the car was stuck at a charging point that didn't have power. On the way to Sivakasi on a hot day, the overheating warning cropped up. On a trip to Maddur, the charger point had a power cut in the middle of fast charging.

I'm not even getting into the issues our commercial EVs have faced. We use the BESCOM network, with both fast and slow charging. Our goods EV driver even had to write to the EE of a specific division after a bunch of cabbies were caught drinking outside the charging station. BESCOM banned overnight charging at that station because of this and we had to get the EE to solve this for us. It took a week for the issue to be sorted.

A Tiago.EV in my house has done 60K in 15 months. 70 % of charging has been done at home, and 5 % within big cities. The remaining 25 % done on the highway has been quite tedious.

Cheers,

Jay

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

There isn’t much that can be done. The car is showing the HV critical error. He can try removing the negative terminal for the battery for 15 minutes. But in most cases, this error is resolved only by resetting it through TASS. And the car remains unusable in meanwhile. All this has been discussed at length in the Nexon EV thread as well as in dedicated threads on the HV Critical issue.

Fact is that while HV critical error is common on the 30kwh Nexon and on Tiago EV, it is pretty rare on the Nexon Max/LR. The very fact that it has occurred and on a BLR-Leh trip points to repeated DC charging sessions with no full slow charge in between, which is a known cause of the error. The car’s manual explicitly warns against doing no more than 4 back to back DC fast charging sessions.

In that case, Tata Motors must explicitly state that EVs are not meant for long distance driving/road trips. EVs are unsuitable for highway use in most parts of India.

Cheers,

Jay

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

OT:: Is this even legal to release the car in market with such restrictions? What if I don't have an infrastructure or as in this case, customer is not able to use slow charging. How bad is this requirement, like how much minimum time one has to charge on regular slow charger?

Exactly what came into my mind. I can't believe they haven't even found a solution to this yet. Does continuous fast charging cause any other issue other than inaccurate range estimation or higher battery degradation? Is it critical enough to strand the users in the middle of nowhere? 🤔

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

OT:: Is this even legal to release the car in market with such restrictions? What if I don't have an infrastructure or as in this case, customer is not able to use slow charging. How bad is this requirement, like how much minimum time one has to charge on regular slow charger?

I am a little surprised by the reactions on this thread, for all this has been discussed at length across multiple threads elsewhere on this forum. These are all standard EV quirks. It is common public knowledge that repeated DC charging is not recommended, and this is the case across brands. Not just Tata. Look at NMC battery equipped cars like XUV400 or Ioniq5. They not only warn against repeat DC charging, but also against charging to 100% regularly. Only the BYD Blade battery equipped cars are able to handle DC charging on repeat with negligible side effects.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

1) The Tata EVs' notorious "HV Critical Alert", and the awful frequency at which it's been happening, and Tata's inability to let users rectify it without a service visit (despite it being a frequently faced issue).

2) Poor & terribly slow response from the RSA. And not because OP was in some remote area either - as he's mentioned the expected time vs the actual times in his post above.

... I guess that said, you could argue that OP should have known that this would be an eventuality (perhaps something like taking a Skoda DQ200 to Leh)

This is the first time I am hearing of the HV critical issue on the Max/LR. The model has been on sale for a couple of years now, and this instance apart, everything points to the issue being resolved, at least on the 40kwh Nexon. Anecdotal evidence from my local TASS also suggest the same.

RSA is usually a third party contracted service, and invariably sucks across brands. A good RSA experience should make news, not a bad one!

That’s a fantastic example.
Ultimately people buy the car for their requirements and preferences, knowing the risks.

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth

In that case, Tata Motors must explicitly state that EVs are not meant for long distance driving/road trips. EVs are unsuitable for highway use in most parts of India.

I drive a Nexon EV LR myself, essentially the same car as the OP’s. Mine has clocked over 20000km in nine months, and has been on multiple highway trips as well as to high mountains. Whenever I take the car out of town, it is a calculated decision I am making. There is always a possibility that something can go wrong. You have to plan and hedge. Long distancing in EVs is not straightforward, and all EV owners know that.

Then again, all EV car owners tend to have additional cars as well. If you have doubts, you can always take your ICE car out.

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by sumannandy

3. The girl who was handling initially had no clue about all theses. She was even asking random questions about the car. It was only after I escalated to somebody else things actually got moving. I had to call multiple times.

I had a very similar experience with Renault RSA. I had even paid for their RSA package. It is difficult to connect to a representative. Once connected, they try their maximum to delay sending a vehicle. Their web page to send location of the vehicle was not working properly and we had to capture and upload 3-4 pictures for them to initiate the process.

[linuxworld]

I was watching MG ZS ownership review on motoroctane just three days back. The owner shared his experience with MG RSA support while stranded in a remote area. Impeccable MG RSA support blew me away. MG provided support within 15 minutes in a remote part of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. They tow the car and arrange the Innova as a replacement until the ZS charging issue is fixed. Not only that, they also arranged an ambulance for emergency purposes. And ensured customer reached home safely while their car was towed. MG is a foreign entity that could provide RSA support in 15 minutes in the remote part of Maharashtra. Remember, when the incident happened, MG did not have a showroom or service center in Ahmednagar or nearby areas. Tata, being a local Indian brand, can definitely do better and learn from others how to be responsive and sensitive to such kinds of situations.

RSA story from 14.55 to 20.20

Link

[wheeledwanderer]

For all those who are trying this adventure, this is a solution which one should always consider

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by wheeledwanderer

For all those who are trying this adventure, this is a solution which one should always consider

Powered by Honda !

[LMOO2]

Originally Posted by sumannandy

Charging stopped showing under voltage error and the car went into HV critical error mode. Now with ladies accompanying us we are stuck in remote highway since morning.

Tata Motors EV should recall their EVs for High Voltage Critical Error if they want to sustain in this market. Since currently there are very few options in EVs so their cars are selling; once the competition increases with entry of international established players, Tata Motors EV will not be able to sustain with their half baked EVs. The twitter is filled with numerous complaints of breakdown and very poor RSA of Tata Motors. I would suggest every Tata Motors owners to get RSA along with insurance which will be worth it after seeing so many abrupt breakdowns requiring towing.

Originally Posted by wheeledwanderer

For all those who are trying this adventure, this is a solution which one should always consider

How much time will it take to charge a 30 KW battery? Can we run the car while charging? Range extender EVs or Plug in Hybrids are the best option for India. I'm waiting for the government to reduce the GST on hybrids to 18-20% or incease the GST on EVs to 12-18% to a give a level playing field for all the manufacturers which will benefit the customers.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

I These are all standard EV quirks. It is common public knowledge that repeated DC charging is not recommended, and this is the case across brands.

No, that's not correct at all. We have 3 EVs in our family, Two Teslas and One BMW. Collectively over 100K with one of them being about 6 years old. Never has any of the car left us stranded anywhere.

On the topic, has Tata or others warned that their cars cannot be charged on DC back to back more than 4 times while making the sales? Giving warnings in manuals or messages in the forums - is the manufacturer's responsibility to warn or customer need to do due diligence on such technical things?

Had this been in any other country, Tata would have been sued or would have gone bankrupt.

[FiatDiesel]

Originally Posted by linuxworld

I was watching MG ZS ownership review on motoroctane just three days back. The owner shared his experience with MG RSA support while stranded in a remote area. Impeccable MG RSA support blew me away. MG provided support within 15 minutes in a remote part of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.

I have experienced MG RSA in very remote part of MH, almost in middle of jungle and they were fantastic. I got the tow truck and cab for family within 3.5 hours. They ensured that cab reaches us ASAP so that we are not standing on expressway. They got tow truck and cab from almost 80-100 kms away. On top of it, the executive on phone allayed my fear about Hector’s handling as its MGs responsibility once handed over to tow truck guy and it will be taken care. We were dropped to our home 600 km away in Pune with zero cost ( except toll charges) and Hector to Nagpur (150 km away) again zero cost to me. I got my car back without any heartaches or problems.
MG customer service and RSA are industry benchmark.

Below is the link of incident I am referring above.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...xpressway.html (2 tyres of my MG Hector burst on the Samriddhi Expressway)

[Way2Jimny]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

On the topic, has Tata or others warned that their cars cannot be charged on DC back to back more than 4 times while making the sales? Giving warnings in manuals or messages in the forums - is the manufacturer's responsibility to warn or customer need to do due diligence on such technical things?

Had this been in any other country, Tata would have been sued or would have gone bankrupt.

I bought my Nexon EV in 2022. On the day of delivery, I was explained all the technical details and was asked to sign a document. I'm attaching it here for reference.

One of the clause:
After a maximum of 4 continuous fast charging cycles/opportunity charging (SOC less than90%), it is recommended to use Normal/slow Charging and charge the car to 100% for optimum performance of high voltage battery pack. Charging to 100% maintains battery health for longer time and ensures better range during the next drive cycle.

[100Kmphormore]

Going through this thread should give Tata Motors and any other electric vehicle manafacturer all they need to get rid of this stupid HV error once and for all. A product has to be foolproof against anything and anywhere before releasing it on a mass market scale. India is taking to EVs quite fast, but only a small number of which majority is the Nexon EV, followed by the Tiago and then the ZS EV. Being in the top 3, Tata in general is not known for smooth customer service in the showroom itself, forget RSA (this though is an exception due to the terrain).

During my friends purchase of a Nexon Dark, I had to pull in the showroom sales head due to issues with PDI and adamant on buying showroom insurance, whom I knew due to a previous flareup by the lackadaisical/newbie executives.

[harikrishnansp]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

A simple, single sentence sums it up all. I am not asking the OP sumannandy to reveal the ID of this good Samaritan but on behalf of everyone in TBHP a big shoutout for him.

Not all heroes wear capes, some have a live to drive sticker on their car.

[harikrishnansp]

Originally Posted by Vikash Kumawat

RSA should include in Global NCap safety tests, how your car will save you if you can't drive it because of the poor reliability, what if you're stranded in middle of a jungle with your family with a Tata car waiting to be repaired? A BIG NO TO TATA!!

As they say, for every unhappy owner (they are also dismissed as "social media noise" apparently) there is a 100 happy ones.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

No, that's not correct at all. We have 3 EVs in our family, Two Teslas and One BMW. Collectively over 100K with one of them being about 6 years old. Never has any of the car left us stranded anywhere.

On the topic, has Tata or others warned that their cars cannot be charged on DC back to back more than 4 times while making the sales? Giving warnings in manuals or messages in the forums - is the manufacturer's responsibility to warn or customer need to do due diligence on such technical things?

Had this been in any other country, Tata would have been sued or would have gone bankrupt.

My comment was regarding the EVs available in the Indian market, specifically the relevant end under 50L. All of them, barring the BYDs, can’t be DC fast charged continuously. That’s just the way it is.