The good and bad of owning a Tiago EV: Observations after 1 yr & 25k km

The Tiago EV has been doing its duties well, but I do regret not waiting for the Punch EV.

BHPian Mr.Perera recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

1 Year and 25,000 km with the Tiago EV

So, it has been one year of living with the Tiago EV. The Tiago EV has become my daily driver and touchwood, it hasn't had any major issues to date. I must say, getting the Tiago EV last year was a fantastic decision, mainly due to two reasons. One is definitely the savings on fuel costs, and the second is how fun it is as a city car. Out of the 25,000 kms I covered, I think around 90% were city drives, mainly home- office-work sites-gym and back home. These drives normally range between 40 to 150 kms per day, depending on my work schedule. I have also done a few highway runs. Mostly the day before the drive, I plan to take the Karoq or Thar, but when I think of the cost of filling fuel, I check for EV charging stations en route and then take the Tiago EV. It turns out that 95% of my driving is now on the Tiago EV, and the other cars are taken very rarely. I have done some 5 to 6-long drives on the EV, ranging from 200 to 500 km per trip. The good thing is that the number of public charging stations has been increasing rapidly, and mostly within every 50 kms on most major roads here in Kerala, there is a charging station. Last weekend we went to Thekkady from Trivandrum. Initially, we planned to take the Karoq, but while calculating, I realized I would need to spend around Rs 4,500 on fuel for the 500 km trip. So, the miser in me decided to take the EV. I started at 100% charge from home and stopped at 3 DC charging stations throughout the entire trip. I planned it in such a way that the charging stops were at restaurants so that I could charge while having my meal break. Also, I paid just 450 Rs in total for charging. So, that's just 10% of the cost of what it would have been in the Karoq. This is how my life has been in the past year, and somehow or the other, I find a reason to take the EV every time.

In the past year, these are my major observations on the Tiago EV:

The Good

1. Running cost: The Tiago EV has been bringing big savings for me on fuel costs. Previously, I used to spend around Rs 25,000 per month on fuel. Now, it has become literally zero! Since my house has a 5KW solar-power plant and mostly the generation is more than the consumption, my electricity bills are negligible. Every time when I come back home after work if the battery is below 50%, I plug the car for overnight charging. I have the slow 3.3 kW charger, and it normally takes around 10 hours to charge from 10% to 100%. So, if I plug in at night, the next day morning the car will be fully charged. If I had driven the Karoq for the past 25,000 kms, I would have spent around 2.75 lakhs on fuel in the past year.
2. Fun: The Tiago EV is massive fun to drive around. It's like a pocket rocket, so small and nimble with tons of torque. The lack of any gearbox means at any speed, put the foot down, and the car just leaps forward.
3. Comfortable suspension: The suspension of the Tiago is tuned more to the comfort side. It absorbs most of the small potholes and gives a very plush ride.
4. Less service cost: The services are at 7500 kms and most were mere checkups. The bill amounts were between Rs 1,000 and 3,000. Also, the service experience is getting better as well.
5. Range: The car has been giving a consistent range between 180 and 240 kms on a full charge. Even after 1 year of consistent use, that figure is almost the same.

The Bad and the Ugly

1. Lack of Hill Hold feature: The omission of the Hill Hold feature is a big bummer. Most of the time while on a slope, I press the brake pedal while stopping, and the moment I take my foot off the brake to press the throttle, the car rolls back. It is very irritating at times. Now, every time I pull the handbrake lever while stopping on an incline and modulate the throttle handbrake while starting off.
2. Lack of traction control: With such high levels of instant torque, the front wheel easily loses traction when we push the throttle fully. If there is some loose gravel mid-corner and you are on full throttle, the wheels lose traction easily. I feel this is a bit dangerous and wish it had traction control.
3. Improper ABS calibration: There is a noticeable delay between brake engagement when the ABS kicks in. For example, if there is a patch of dirt and I brake hard and the wheel tends to lock, the ABS releases the brake, but in most other cars that delay is so small you won't notice, but in the Tiago, that time is a bit longer and only after a few milliseconds, the brake engages back.
4. Charging Lid: The locking mechanism in the charging lid is very flimsy. After a few rounds of opening and closing, the metal part inside bends, and I have to manually pull it back for the lid to close. Also, I wish the lid could have been opened from the outside by just pressing it like how it's there in other cars now. Most of the time I take the charging cable from the boot, plug it onto the wall, and turn back and see the charging lid is not opened. I need to go back to the driver's door and pull the lever below to open it. If it was just pushing the lid to open, it would have been very convenient.
5. The central lock bug: I mentioned this in my first post as well. There have been times when I switch off the car and come out of the car, while the key is still inside the car and the car locks automatically. A few times I have faced this, and I had to bring my second key to open the car. During the last service, I had mentioned this again, and they seemed to have fixed it. But I'm still scared of the scenario where my kids may get locked inside the car like that sometimes so every time I make sure I keep the key in my pocket itself. Also, if at you switch on the car and get out of the car with the key, the car just honks rapidly 5 times. Which is very disturbing, yes it is a reminder that the car is still on, but one small honk was understandable but why 5 honks? There have been instances where I get out to open my gate with the car on and key in my pocket and the car honks so rapidly that all my neighbours know that I have arrived.
6. The good-for-nothing Z connect App: Tata boasts about its connected car features like starting the car remotely, geo-fencing, switching on the AC, turning on the lights, etc., but the app NEVER works! It's such a waste. When my car had locked itself with the key inside, I tried the app a hundred times to unlock the car. But it never worked. If Tata can't make something that works properly, then why take the pain of developing it? Such a waste of resources. Also, all this while I was thinking it was a free app. After one year, I got a message from Tata that the first-year free service was over, and now I need to pay Rs 3528 for an annual subscription. I am never going to pay for something that doesn't work in the first place. Also, Tata seems to be so desperate for us to take the package that they had literally sent me around 15 SMS reminders to renew my subscription.
7. Dirty seats: The Tiago EV XZ+ Tech Lux variant comes with light beige leatherette seats, and they get really dirty! One lesson I learned is NEVER getting light-coloured seats on a daily driver's car, especially if you have small kids in your family.
8. Lack of rear parking sensors: Fun fact, while you are in reverse gear in the Tiago EV, the music sound reduces, so that you can hear the parking sensor beeps. But there are no parking sensors in the Tiago EV! Only a camera. How much would it cost Tata to just add two sensors in the rear boot, especially when the ICE variant comes with them? That's another pointless omission.

Summary

Keeping aside all these minor issues, the Tiago EV has been doing the daily runaround and beater duties so well. I have reached a point in my life where an electric small car has become an absolute necessity considering my daily running. Any regrets? Yes, I feel I should have waited for the Punch EV. At just 2 lakhs extra the Punch has a better motor and more range and is an overall better-made car than the Tiago. If I was in the market today to buy a small EV, I would have got the Punch EV.

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