Stuck on a remote highway in Tata Nexon EV Max due to charging issues

Not something I was looking forward to after paying so much for an electric vehicle. Response from Tata Motors is also very unwelcoming when there is also a lady on board.

BHPian sumannandy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

We are travelling in Tata Nexon EV Max from Bangalore to Leh via Kashmir. The car has done about 65,000 kms with a recent battery change. And I use the car mostly on highways. 65,000 is covered in one and a half years.

However today after I left Jammu with a 100 percent charge, we tried to charge in BPCL en route. Charging stopped showing under voltage error and the car went into HV critical error mode. Now with ladies accompanying us, we have been stuck in a remote highway since morning.

Tata RSA initially arranged a tow truck which would come after 4 hours. And they didn't say anything about taxis. The tow truck guy called and said passengers could not travel in the truck. Now Tata RSA is asking us to arrange a taxi on our own, and they will look after reimbursing. Point is there is no taxi available, but they could have easily arranged a taxi from the nearest city Jammu. Now they are not doing it but asking us to arrange on our own.

Even the girl who called had no idea about the Nexon EV Max and was asking irrelevant questions and even said my car could not be towed.

Not something I was looking forward to after paying so much for a car. It is now a safety issue as well. Response from Tata Motors is also very unwelcoming when there is also a lady on board.

Here's what BHPian RollinWheels had to say about the matter:

My anxiety peaked just by reading this. This is why I think I will never get adjusted to an EV with the current infra we have in this country. At least, not yet.

Hope you get to the nearest town safely.

Here's what BHPian Shreyans_Jain had to say about the matter:

You are going cross country, across mountains, in a Nexon EV. Surely, you are not doing this in the spur of the moment. You must have done plenty of homework beforehand and anticipated such things. Everyone knows that charging infra is really spotty and unreliable in the mountains. Again, it is well known that repeated back-to-back DC charging sessions can lead to the HV error, you should do a slow charge to 100% every once in a while. There are multiple videos online about people attempting the Ladakh circuit in EVs and all of them have struggled big time. I salute your bravery and risk appetite for attempting such a drive, especially with family. But such a thing was bound to happen at some point. RSA can’t be expected to be a get-out-of-jail card when you are out in the middle of nowhere. This one is on you, brother!

It’s like, you can’t blame Honda if your City gets stuck or damaged if you take it off-roading.

Here's what BHPian MT_Hyderabad had to say about the matter:

He has done 65,000 kms on the same car, that too mostly on highways. I am sure he knew what he was doing. However, the point is related to RSA. I have very bad experience with Tata RSA, it appears that the lady on his call was the same lady I was dealing with when my Safari Dicor had some electrical issues. I wanted a pickup truck and she was arranging it from 100 kms away when I was just 35 kms away from the city centre (Hyderabad). That also never came. They did call after 6, 7 hours to check if I was still waiting for them.

It was raining, I took help from my friends to arrange a mechanic, who fixed it temporarily. Later, I got it rectified permanently.

Here's what BHPian Rehaan had to say about the matter

This is the case of:

• 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).
• 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.

Some HV error related threads:

• Tata Nexon EV Max shows HV System Fault even before battery reaches 9%
• HV Critical Alert in Tata EVs
• HV Battery Fault at 10 months in my Nexon EV Max | Tata’s quick response
• Tata Tiago Electric Review

I guess that said, you could argue that the OP should have known that this would be an eventuality (perhaps something like taking a Skoda DQ200 to Leh), but then again, that's where the RSA complaint comes in. (Though the arranging a taxi point needs to be checked in the fine print).

Also OP, just FYI, here's a report of a MG ZS EV having an HV error, however, the car seemed to be driveable and the problem disappeared after a few restarts!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.