Participated in a breakfast drive organised by a new Tata EV showroom

We were given a walkaround of the showroom. I love the design - they look modern, are spacious and feel more premium compared to the regular Tata showrooms.

BHPian thomahawk recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Two major dealer networks of Tata unveiled their Tata.ev showrooms ahead of the festive season. So Kochi gets not one, but two EV showrooms (service facility to start soon).

The one in Edapally (near Oberon Mall) is advertised by the dealer (Luxon Tata) as the largest EV 'exclusive' showroom in India. I wonder why Tata decided to let both their dealers open showrooms not far from each other. I registered for a breakfast drive organized as part of the celebrations. Both showrooms had a breakfast drive (at the same time), and I picked the longer one to Alappuzha (Ramada by Wyndham Alleppey) from the Edapally showroom.

I registered for the event through 'evolve' website on Friday after calling their support (the website on mobile did not show me an option to register). The drive was on Sunday and the SPOC reached out on Saturday and explained about 'Evolve' and the drive they have planned. The event was supposed to start at 6:30 AM with the flag-off at 7:00 AM. The SPOC had confirmed that the briefing starts at 6:45 AM and reach before that – so we arrived at 6:40 AM. My wife kept reminding me this is India, and nothing starts on time - but I insisted that we make it in time, as this is probably professionally organized and run. My wife was right, and the entire thing was late by 1.5 hrs. There was no briefing, and the SPOC did a showroom walkthrough as a filler.

I love the design of the showrooms; they look modern, are spacious and feel more premium compared to the regular Tata showroom. Nexa pales in comparison (comparing since both are branded as lifestyle brands). They are like the La Maison showrooms from Citroen but grander (Blue Tokai barista like the Café in Citroen). The entire second floor of the showroom is for organizing community events, or to chill while your car is getting a top-up using the 60kW charger. The SPOC said there will be a lot of events like Yoga sessions, seminars, workshops - something for everyone in the family. The SPOC (who is a dealer employee) seemed very energetic and enthusiastic about building an active local community. The concept seems similar to the Fiat Caffe - guess the two were in a JV at the time.

The staff served us hot coffee and biscuits, and the drive finally started after 8 AM. All the cars were numbered (I believe there were around 24 cars) in the order of arrival. Instructions were shared over the radio (each car got a walkie-talkie) and everyone followed the instructions to the dot (no overtakes, no peeking over the sunroof, no stops unless instructed etc.). The organizers wanted all the cars to join in on the banter over the radio but hardly anyone seemed interested. I think most family members might have slept, since we started our day quite early for a Sunday. The first half of the drive was interesting but towards the end of it, I think everyone got bored - the drive was a bit long for a breakfast drive.

We finally reached the destination around 10:45 PM. We had a quick breakfast (or Brunch) but could not stay for the networking and group discussion after, since we had to make it in time for another function later in the day. We got a small potted plant (the pot was plastic though – the irony) as a token of appreciation. I was hoping to get a quick top-up, but a few chargers near the highway were either offline or moved due to the highway work. The heavy rains did not help. After driving around a bit, we managed to find a functional EVOK charger, which seemed to take forever to give us a 30% top up. We finally reached our second stop after driving back half the way to Kochi.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.