[SR5471]

A bike with triples on it caused similar damage to my Honda Jazz's right orvm. Instead of changing the whole assembly,I was able to repair it thanks to child parts.Such mirror design saves money and prevents unnecessary replacement of whole mirror assembly.

[joybhowmik]

Faulty Sensairy TPMS replacement

Approximately a month ago I'd noticed the Front right tyre was not showing updated readings on the app. I suspected the sensor may have gone bad, but had decided to monitor it for a while.
On the 18th day, I messaged Sensairy customer support and they shipped out a replacement sensor under warranty.
I got this installed without much ceremony for ₹250 - this included the necessary balancing charges, at a local tyre shop near home.

Here's the faulty sensor readout



And here's the tyre getting attention


Job done in about 30 minutes and I was on my way.

My First Fast charge (Statiq)

I'd mentioned earlier that ordinarily I would not need to charge outside. Well, it appears I spoke too soon. When I arrived at office I had about 80 km of range left (31%); this is more than sufficient to get me back home.
However, the better half reminded me of dinner plans immediately after , with my BIL who is visiting town—and what better way to welcome him into the city than on our new car!

Only that , it represented a problem - a round trip to his hotel would cost me 40 km - and there was also the additional possiibility of the brother-sister duo deciding to eat somewhere totally different. Which in turn meant I may end up pushing the limits of range.

I would not have the time to slow charge Ruby to 100% either.
Life!
So, I had no option but to try out fast charging at work! Statiq showed me an estimated price of ₹680 , for 89% SoC - so I charged the wallet with ₹700.

My encounter with the 60kw fast charger was not without its initial hiccups. The charging refused to start. Until, I made a call to Customer care and they walked me through this step by step.

Estimated time to target SoC was 36 minutes, which was okay.

Total units consumed: 22.482

Price: ₹ 491 inclusive taxes

SoC at finish : 94%

Time taken: 56 minutes



Thoughts

1. Statiq did not stop charging at 89% instead going on to charge to 94%. I should have set a charging limit at 89% in the ZConnect App - but in my hurry, had forgotten to do so.
   
2. Statiq did not allow me to start charging until my wallet showed a balance greater than their estimated price of ₹ 680.
   
3. Though Statiq charged me 28% less than the estimated charge (fine print says this could be due to vehicle type, battery condition, battery SoC and "more") , and I have balance left over... BUT
   
4. Asking for a refund isn't as simple as a button click. It requires manual followup—email/phone to customer care—within 6 months of the top-up.
   
5. This is reminiscent of recharge cards in arcades. In that, the establishment forces you to top up wallet balance to a high amount. Once you've consumed a few entertainment options, they don't leave you with enough balance, and then to spend the remnant, you'd have to top up more! In short, this feels like there's no getting off the hamster wheel.
   
6. At ₹ 21.84 per unit, Statiq's energy proved to be more than 3.5 times what I would pay the discom due to a home charge. But this hopefully is a one-time event. Still, I can't complain. They did help me to fix the problem of extended use today. And it would still be cheaper than having to take the petrol car out for the remaining trips today.
   

Back home, I put Ruby to charge to 100% SoC on the regular charger, which has the added benefit of cell balancing.

[joybhowmik]

Connected cars are a thing now—well, they have been a thing for sometime. There are degrees of depth in capability, and the Punch EV is probably middling grade—i.e., not as high on the maturity curve as a Tesla and probably not as low as a high-end Maruti Suzuki.

A car gets connected via a Telematics Control Unit (TCU)

Ruby stayed connected, until late evening of November 13, 2024, until:

ZConnect Not Connecting


I thought that something was wrong, but the FAQs on both the IRA.EV and ZConnect app - imply that loss of connection is not a matter of concern, as it may simply be due to lack of ISP signal. Which is true.

Nevertheless, the car did not connect with the apps, the next day, and the next and the next ! I thought, something was up - and decided to drop an email to the support team on November 16.

My email was acknowledged by a bot. Not even an incident was logged. So , I called the toll free number and they said someone will look at it during business hours (which is Monday-Friday, 9-5 )

November 18, 2024. Approx 9:15 PM
I hadn't any response back from anyone in tatamotors , remotely suggesting someone was even looking at the problem. So, I escalated by sending an email to customer care.

Hello , both IRA.EV and Zconnect apps are unable to communicate with my Tata Punch EV for last 6 days (since November 13,2024).

Kindly fix this issue at the earliest. I have already called at your helpdesk number 48 hours ago but there is no meaningful response or resolution from Tata Motors.

I also privately messaged Mr. Satya of Tata Motors (readers will recall he resolved my customer record issue earlier). My hope was, that my messaging him, at least someone will read the message of my ZConnect and IRA.EV app not working.

That had the desired effect, and the very next day, I got an email reply with an actual incident number.

With incident number in hand, I asked Mr Satya if he could have the team investigate why Ruby wasn't connecting. It happened to be election day in Pune, so I had to wait for some more time, but eventually he came back, and asked me to take a photograph and shoot a video of the Telematics Control Unit (TCU).

This is how it looks. And it's placed beneath the driver's seat. I was asked to record the indicator lights -only 1 of 3 were blinking.

The Telematics Control Unit


The team looked at the video and asked me to visit the service center for getting a hard reset done, and to provide a video of the proceedings.

This was done at the Autovikas Dedicated EV service center in Gurgaon on November 23.
The team documented the behaviour of the unit before the hard reset, during, and after the hard reset. Finally, the team also attached a working TCU from another car, to validate that the wiring loom in Ruby was okay. These were sent on to the support team- who acknowledged and promised to get back.

TCU Fault Diagnosis Process

While there, talking with staff and customers, I got some insights into how the role of service centers is increasingly being relegated to parts-change-out specialists rather than repair specialists. As the world accelerates towards digitization in automobiles, this has become the norm, probably because the industry cannot scale production of complex skills.

November 26
The support team confirmed the TCU was faulty and okayed a warranty replacement.

We have received below update from the concerned team regarding this issue with Incident No: IN-241119-1675.

Since 1st and 3rd LED are not blinking at all and middle LED blinking every 5 sec , hard reboot had not resolved the issue, TCU needs to be replaced and faulty one to be sent to warranty cell


Please co-ordinate with customer for TCU replacement

This was followed by total radio silence. I expected either Tata Motors or Autovikas team to tell me when I should bring the car in for a replacement. In this day and age of cloud-based inventory control, it should not take more than 5 minutes for a parts specialist to say how long it will take.

So on November 27th evening, I sent an acerbic email marking Tata Motors management

Hi Tata Motors
I'm hoping between Autovikas team and Tata Motors support, someone can give me ETA for the Telematics Control Unit, which has not worked since November 13

14 days since the original failed hearbeat, I still don't have a connected car.

I thought the lack of a connection into a digitally connected car should have made at least a few alarm bells ring.

No?

I felt that Tata Motors knew of the issue since November 13. They do track location and status information, and if the car stopped responding without a change in status, it should have set alarm bells ringing. Moreover, since the Tata Motors team essentially sat on my complaint for 2 whole days—did not even look at it—I felt that the company is being held back by inherent bureaucracy.

In any case, Mr. Satya spoke with me the next day and promised me he would do what he could. And in fact, yesterday, ie November 29 the TCU was replaced at Autovikas.

All's well that ends well. At least Ruby's back online.

The TCU by the way, is probably dumber than the average smartphone but costs twice as much!

The Bill


Observations
The TCU is manufactured by Bosch—a reputable brand, just like other TCU manufacturers such as Texas Instruments. Yet it failed just after 2 months of ownership.
In the mass market, no automaker produces 100% of the components that go into their cars. Yet, they are responsible for qualifying parts suppliers on the basis of strict compliance with tolerances.
I don't think mine is a one-off; per the service center, they were quite familiar with the diagnosis process - this means several cars have had failed TCUs in the past.
This is a small sample - but representative. This points to a possible scenario where Tata Motors has either not made their quality requirements well known to Bosch or Tata Motors lacks the wherewithal to enforce these requirements on stuff that Bosch sends over.
Either way, the customer pays—through loss of a valuable service. That is not acceptable. The Indian customer is demanding, and many a brand have had to wind up and leave with tail between their legs—for exactly this reason.

November 18, 2024
In other news, I got a Amaro digital tyre inflator from Amazon. It does the job and is also compatible with mains electric supply—for things like footballs and cycle tyres!

I'll be leaving the supplied air-compressor at home from now on.

[joybhowmik]

December 09, 2024

Its been a little over 3 months and 4000 km. Having gone through 5 different licenses in 3 jurisdictions over the past 30 years, one would expect I would know all there is to know about driving.

Yes?
No.

Consider this 108 Wh/km energy economy figure from yesterday:

This, by the way, is at par for driving in a mad metro like Delhi—one may even call these superlative figures. A no-hurry demeanor, coupled with soft piano music wafting through the JBL system, is enough to put anyone to sleep. An economy figure like the above is just icing on the cake.


One goes to sleep happy. Secure in the knowledge the car will be its usual self again in the morning.


Until the next day's economy figure leaves one flabbergasted. For now this new "high" has set the performance bar right up there in the clouds!


The answer lay in not giving A pedal input at all, and indeed that seemed to get the average economy down to 43 Wh/km. Until Ruby had to break a sweat climbing the 1 in 250 grade home—after which the economy figure reached 60 Wh/km

One lives and learns! Every single day!

In other news, due to not driving the Glanza at all, its battery threw a tantrum early morning. Prior to the Batmobile's visit, I have been charging it all day. As things stand at home, its quite possible the Glanza's engine or some other significant part may also throw a sympathetic tantrum!! Fingers Crossed!!

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

December 09, 2024


The answer lay in not giving A pedal input at all, and indeed that seemed to get the average economy down to 43 Wh/km. Until Ruby had to break a sweat climbing the 1 in 250 grade home—after which the economy figure reached 60 Wh/km

Those are impressive figures but make sure you take the round trip efficiencies. Case in point. I normally get about 125-130 Wh/km on my nexon EV from Palakkad to Coimbatore airport but during the trip back I routinely get 85-90. The best I have got is a jaw dropping 65. It is not apparent but Palakkad-Coimbatore is quite a climb. I have cycled (part of) this route as well and even on the cycle it is often difficult to perceive the gradient of some of the ghost climbs where you suddenly find it laborious to maintain the pace.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by electric_eel

Those are impressive figures but make sure you take the round trip efficiencies. Case in point. I normally get about 125-130 Wh/km on my nexon EV from Palakkad to Coimbatore airport but during the trip back I routinely get 85-90. The best I have got is a jaw dropping 65. It is not apparent but Palakkad-Coimbatore is quite a climb. I have cycled (part of) this route as well and even on the cycle it is often difficult to perceive the gradient of some of the ghost climbs where you suddenly find it laborious to maintain the pace.

@electric_eel - Of course, those figures I posted are anything but sustainable. To add to your observation, I am back at 104/105 Wh/km average.

It's not only impractical but down right unsafe to drive at crawling speeds in the city.

[theOneWhoRides]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Why a Red Tata Punch EV?

Since we were planning to book, we needed to zero in on the color of the car.

Available options were a nondescript white, a boring gray, an oxide color that looked off-white, a dirty green , and red. There wasn't any blue - which we would have loved. Treo Tata had indicated they had the white and the oxide in stock and ready to go. But they looked really unexciting in the flesh. So, we quite unimaginatively chose red.


Oh yes, there was also another tiny reason for choosing red. Red isn't a popular color in India. We were essentially saying we wanted our car cooked fresh.

It would also be the reason why we paid ₹ 1.45 lakhs more on possession. But that's for later.

Thank you so much for sharing your buying and ownership experience. It's been super helpful. We're also planning to upgrade our loved i20 Petrol to Empowered Plus LR version and having hard time picking the color. Heart says, go for the red while the mind says go for the no-fuss White. Unfortunately the local dealership doesn't have the red color on display, so that's making it real tough for us. Since you've had the car for some time now, how do you feel about the color? How different it is from Nexon EV Red if you know. Would you have any photos of the car in normal day light that you can share?

Thank you so much.

[Jazzybala]

Originally Posted by theOneWhoRides

Thank you so much for sharing your buying and ownership experience. It's been super helpful. We're also planning to upgrade our loved i20 Petrol to Empowered Plus LR version and having hard time picking the color. Heart says, go for the red while the mind says go for the no-fuss White. Unfortunately the local dealership doesn't have the red color on display, so that's making it real tough for us. Since you've had the car for some time now, how do you feel about the color? How different it is from Nexon EV Red if you know. Would you have any photos of the car in normal day light that you can share?

Thank you so much.

The fearless red Punch.ev is a slightly darker shade compared to the flame red of Nexon.Ev, based on my observation of both cars. My personal preferrence is the daytona grey on both cars.

[theOneWhoRides]

Originally Posted by Jazzybala

The fearless red Punch.ev is a slightly darker shade compared to the flame red of Nexon.Ev, based on my observation of both cars. My personal preferrence is the daytona grey on both cars.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I also feel the same way about the red color (Punch vs Nexon) based on what I've seen in pictures and videos. We already have a grey color car and that's why we decided to not go with that one.

I think we'll take a fearless decision and go with what the heart says

[joybhowmik]

It's been a long time since I posted something about Ruby.

My apologies for the delay. All was not quite well , but as I write this, things appear to be settling down.

Milestones

First things first - a couple of milestones rolled by in quick succession

7000 km came up on 27th Feb, 2025 , during my morning commute



And exactly a month later , 26th Mar, 2025 during a drive to my morning walk destination , 8000 km happened on the odo




So the question is - was all well with Ruby during this period?
Not quite. An error did leave me confounded.

Incorrect SOC on App

On the intervening evening/night between 7th and 8th March - I had left Ruby to charge as usual from about 16% to 100% SoC just past 10 pm.

The next morning, around 11 AM (after 12 hours of charging) , I checked the ZConnect App to find out how much more time would be needed to full charge.
I was shocked to see that even after 12 hours , the app was reporting 51% SoC. I quickly double checked with the IRA.ev app - and that showed the same SoC.

The telltale error showing in the charging history displayed by ZConnect.



Notice how the App stops tracking SoC after 51%, sometime around 4 in the morning of 8th March.

Incorrect SoC on EV apps - ZConnect and IRA.EV, approximately at 11 AM




Well, anyway - wishing to find out if the telematics was connected to the unit, I quickly tested the lock, unlock function, from the App.

And lo and behold, the car was connected to the server!



Suspecting that this could, in fact be a real charging issue!
I went ahead and checked the instrument cluster, and what a sigh of relief to note the 96% SoC. Signifying that at least nothing was apparently wrong with the charging circuitry!



I allowed some more time, till the instrument cluster showed a 100% SoC. Funnily enough, the App synched up with the true SoC immediately after starting the car.



So, what went wrong?


Knowing a thing or two about how modern applications integrate with each other, I have a theory.

I think that the telematics unit (yes, the unit replaced under warranty a few months ago) stopped communicating SoC back to the server sometime around 4:16 AM on 8th March. This is why I messaged my contact at Tata Motors, informing him of the problem. He said he will begin investigations and will come back to me. He never did. Though I did tell him, starting the car, solved the problem

I also let it slide, considering that, starting the car and therefore the telematics unit resolved the problem.

However, I am keeping a keen eye out for a recurrence.

Readers will ask me, why didn't I follow through with the dealership? To be honest, this happened just two days after the 2nd service. I had been informed that the diagnostics hadn't turned up any issue then. Besides, I was busy at the time. I just couldn't scramble to the dealership to prove a point. It wasn't worth the trouble - I let it be.

The 2nd Service

The Booking experience These days booking your car for a service isn't a chore. Gone are those days when one had to ring the dealership begging for an appointment. It's quite the opposite these days. Both Autovikas and Treo Tata kept calling me at regular intervals to get Ruby in for the second service. It was, of course, a no-brainer to choose the Autovikas SC at Sector 14 , Gurgaon.

Initial paperwork
I showed up at the dealership at the appointed time of 10:30 AM, March 5, 2025

A walkabout with the SA ensued, and I was informed of a few more minor dings and scratches left on Ruby's skin. I have given up counting them these days.

Next, a preliminary estimate was written up.



(Readers will note the scratched-out figures.)

And soon after, the official estimate (₹ 1985) was thrust in front of me.



Now, this was not a surprise to me. I had been forewarned, specifically of this kind of padding by Autovikas, in one of the NCR social media groups dedicated for Tata EV Owners.


This is how the conversation went:

Me: What are these charges?

SA: Well sir, we always recommend Wheel Alignment, Wheel Balancing and Tyre rotation. And summer's approaching- we recommend the value added AC duct cleaning.

Me: <<searching for these line items feverishly in the service schedule, and coming up confounded>>

(see below



It says "severe" usage. What makes you think I have subjected my car to severe usage?

SA: MMMM <Silence>

Me: Please knock it off. And secondly , why do you think the AC duct needs cleaning? I don't live in a desert.

SA: Ok, sir, I will remove these charges.

It's then that I noticed, that Tata Motors or Autovikas have messed up my address (again, and for the 5th time!)
I don't quite know where the fun is in relocating me to different parts of the country.



I was supposedly residing in the great state of West Bengal!!

The SA was gracious enough to have this quickly corrected. It's back to an almost correct address now. That's almost correct, because Tata Motors in their wisdom, keep adding a locality - which exists, albeit a few miles away, and is totally separate from where I reside!
But, I guess I am way too tired to get Tata Motors to change their systems.

The Service

I had told the SA that I wanted the service schedule followed to the T, and I wanted evidence of that.

He did not disappoint.

Here are some pictures and an account of the key elements of Ruby's 2nd service.

On the hoist




Underbody inspection

Underbody inspection and torquing

Topping Windshield washer fluid



Checking HV breather plug




Coolant pipe inspection- found okay




Finally at the washing bay




Post service paperwork

The invoice amount was ₹1355. I left at 11:45 , approximately an hour and 15 minutes after arrival.



The verdict
Overall, I'm very pleased with the service and would highly recommend this SC to other Tata EV owners. The staff is competent - and it shows.
Padding isn't unknown in the industry, and to be honest, I would recommend that you read your owner's manual and keep in touch with other owners to truly understand what your car really needs.

Any regrets about purchasing Ruby?

Let me address the elephant in the room. Yes, there are errors, even after warranty replacement. Yes, there are those horror stories of Tata Nexon EV cars getting stranded due to sudden battery death, and so on.

What are my thoughts?

Petrol costs ₹95/liter in Delhi. My other car - a Toyota Glanza—offers 15 kmpl in mileage. That works out to ₹6.33 per km—and I am only talking fuel expenses. If one were to bake in yearly service costs, that figure would increase!


I'll let this picture do the talking for me.



At 100 Wh/km (this is what I strive for 99% of the time!) - and an average cost of ₹ 5.5 per unit, I am currently paying 55 paise per km

That means in 8000 km of running (since September 5) I have not spent ₹46 thousand. Even though the then Delhi government, run by a certain political party, unceremoniously looted ₹ 1.6 lakhs , I have every confidence the car will pay me back and more over time. It's just been a little over 6 months.

Gift to our ears

The passenger seat alarms are now (thankfully ) a scene from the past. I finally invested in some universal seat belt clips - and have these plugged into the buckles. Damage : ₹499

[late_enthusiast]

Hello Bhowmik, Good to see you back. Thanks for sharing.

Please note: The issue you mentioned about SOC % not in sync has also happened with me once.

I went to the car around 5/6 AM thinking about how and why the charging stopped. Same result, The car was charging just fine, it was just not synced with Ira App. After this also I did multiple charging sessions but not observed this. Once I connected to Android Auto , it was all fine. But charging graph shows a jump due to this.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Incorrect SOC on App

On the intervening evening/night between 7th and 8th March - I had left

Again found the telemetry unit misbehaving. See the discontinuity in the charging curve. I am not sure if this is expected behavior due to loss of Airtel signal or some other cause.



If it loses mobile signal, why doesn't it store the SOC data offline and transfer it to the server when it reacquires signal?
Or it could use the owner's wifi as a fallback.

Maybe this isn't a bug - but definitely Tata Motors could consider this as a feature request.

[joybhowmik]

This is going to be a short post.

On a family occasion, we decided to take Ruby to Agra via YEW.
Bad mistake. We had engaged cruise control, and on the run between Delhi and the Mathura toll
SoC dropped from 100% to 50%

Things were exacerbated because we did not find a suitable charger in Vrindavan for close to 5 hours.

Then the Tata Power Charger that we did find overcharged us because the Mobile App hung up with no recourse. Did not know Tata = Thief - new for me


Anyway, Zero Chargers on YEW is probably a way for the ruling party pandits to make money by towing EVs

So much for zero zero-corruption government.!!!

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

This is going to be a short post.
On a family occassion , we decided to take Ruby to Agra via YEW.
Bad mistake
We had engaged cruise control - and on the run between Delhi and Mathura toll

This is a well known fact that Yamuna expressway doesn't have any chargers. The govt is in the process of installing chargers. A simple cursory check on Plugshare would have shown the same.

Below is the screenshot from Plugshare clearly showing no chargers on the expressway. The nearest charger is after taking Mathura exit which is Bharat petroleum charger.



You could have even used IRA.EV, Statiq or eHub by MG app to do trip planning.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

The nearest charger is after taking Mathura exit which is Bharat petroleum charger.

That BPCL charger is not even installed. That was the first location we went to. Next as directed by Google Maps and the various apps, we went inside Vrindavan town and spent 2.5 hours going from one charger to another to find none worked.

BTW, plugshare cannot be trusted - that's the learning I have from this episode.

On the plus side, Radisson Vrindavan went out of their way and allowed me to use a 15A plug point to get a few units in, while I had lunch with family.

Thereafter , called the Tata emergency line, and the helpdesk directed me to the Tata Power charger on NH2 just outside vrindavan. When I reached there, I was next in line, and had to wait close to 2 hours for my turn. Bad day indeed.