Got a 33km long TD from Bafna showroom at Baner to Dehu Road-old highway junction and back. Lots of traffic in all lanes on a busy Saturday night (7PM).
At the start of TD, ODO was 1982km, 29% charge and 58km range left.
At the end of 33km drive in flowing but thick highway traffic with 2 U turns, OD was at 2015km, 10% charge left ("remaining range" display goes away below a certain charge % I think):
Observations:
Positives:
1. Super silent and smooth motor. Awesome job by Tata Motors regarding NVH. Credit for the motor goes to motor vendor, more on this later :-)
2. Acceleration is good in D (for reference, my daily drivers are GTI/330i)
3. Acceleration in S is really punchy. Super fun - buy this car just for this part, guys
4. Comfortable suspension and soft ride quality (both my daily drivers are pretty stiffly suspended)
5. Nice steering - no vagueness or slack
6. Nice instrument cluster, Tata haven't gone overboard with anything (fonts, colors, graphics). Coming from understated and elegant Germans, I can't stand funky clusters, so this is a big relief.
7. S mode gets disabled once charge drops to 25%. This is a positive point in a sense that you are kind of warned by your mom that exams are near so you should stop having too much fun. Starting the TD at 29% meant I experienced this first hand - I could only engage S in first few minutes (and glad I did that, my original plan was to drive all the way to Dehu road in D and try S on the return leg). Some slower moving lame duck Wagon Rs in all 3 lanes near Hinjewadi became so irritating that I switched to S almost reflexively and Nexon EV galloped ahead weaving through gaps like a bike and all 3 Wagon Rs were left behind in a flash. Electric motor rocks - terrific torque, no noise, no smoke, no drama. And steering is sharp enough to complement the motor. I am so used to doing this in GTI that whenever I drive those
kitna deti hai wala cars in my friend circle, I just freeze because things just don't move! Nexon EV rocks!
Negatives:
1. Smallish range. With my kind of driving, this thing will do ~150-180km on single charge. Well, I can get all my weekly office commute done in 1 charge, so it may still work as an add-on car at home, I can even do my weekend Lonavla, Sinhagad, Bopdev trips for my marathon training, but may not be able to go for the Satara hill marathon in this car. Mumbai marathon trip is out of question (on single charge) something
mohanphadnis can do in his Kona and I can imagine the grin on his face when my Nexon EV will need to take an exit for charging while his Kona will just keep going. Come on Tata, ignore ARAI, use people like me and Mohan to measure and publish the range. We are real, unlike ARAI. And most importantly, save me from any embarrassment in front of Mohan. He is already trying hard to beat me in the marathon but hasn't managed yet! I want to maintain status quo, in all aspects of "marathoning" :-)
2. Compulsory, fixed regen level: If you ask me, this is one single deal breaker (though not as severe as I had originally feared). Some clarifications first: I am very well used to engine braking and coasting, and have been using both on all cars that I drive. So it's not a case of "being new to EVs". Kona has 3 regen levels and you can just switch it off completely when you intend to coast. And costing is a must - on a flat highway with no traffic ahead of me, once I have gained enough momentum, I coast, all my cars coast superbly. Laura TSI, GTI, 330i are all masters of coasting, and yet they offer lovely engine braking when I want it. In Nexon EV, the moment I am at good speed with open road ahead of me, if I let go of the A pedal because I just want relaxed cruising, compulsory regen kicks in and starts slowing the car down. This is stupid. Thanks to a novel suggestion/workaround
by Rahul Rao, I switched to N and car started coasting smoothly. The moment I ran out of road or momentum, I switched back to D and regen kicked in gradually. So this is a pretty decent workaround. Still, it's a "workaround". Picking up speed after coasting is an intuitive single-step operation in 330i/GTI/Laura/Kona - just press A pedal. in Nexon EV, obviously, I am coasting in N so A pedal does nothing, I need to switch to D and and then press A. This robs most of the fun of relaxed coasting. Hyundai have really done very thoughtful job by making regen optional. The fact that they have given steering paddles to control regen is really next level. I would buy Kona just for this.
3. No Cruise Control. Even on GTI and 330i I use CC quite regularly when I am on an out station trip with family. Nexon EV with compulsory fixed regen makes smooth constant speed long drive "impossible". Come on, Tata, this is a simple software fix.
In summary, Nexon EV is a fantastic car, those who are really in market for a city car, just go for it eyes closed. I don't have a case of 3rd car (well, I don't have a case for 2 cars in the first place
) so I can wait for Tata to fix this "negative no. 2" (nonsensical compulsory regen), if they decide to listen to me. But for daily city usage, this will not be a bother at all, it's only an issue on open long highways.
In lighter vein:
Thanks to a fellow member who uploaded the type approval certificate for Nexon EV which clearly states the make of the motor. Even the sales guy clearly mentioned the motor (which is really the hero of the whole story) is Chinese. So there is no need to bring in "nationalism/hyper-nationalism" or "swadeshi vs videshi" spirit when considering Nexon EV. It is powered by a Chinese motor, no 2 ways about this, so technically it's not a "swaveshi" car, but sourcing a good motor from China is not a bad thing at all. Technology and parts related sourcing decisions are and should be based purely on merit and cost implications.
I went for this TD on my Avan Xero+ (a cute and efficient, silent and smoke-free electric scooter) and it's a very similar vehicle - powered by a Chinese Motor and a Chinese battery, but assembled in Pune. Nothing wrong with this at all - IMO.
More than "swadeshi vs videshi", I think it's far more important to silence OPEC and we must do it by partnering with China, rather than competing with China. In the current situation, OPEC are the villain, not China!
Cheers!