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-   -   5-month old Tata Tigor EV breaks down for the 2nd time in 3 days | Battery changed; issue resolved (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/electric-cars/261396-5-month-old-tata-tigor-ev-breaks-down-2nd-time-3-days-battery-changed-issue-resolved.html)

Hi All members,

Wanted to bring my plight to your notice and a warning to anyone considering Tata EV as their ONLY mode of transport.

The most frightening part is the car switching from D to N on its own on steep slopes, busy junctions, midway when you cross a traffic signal which leads to total chaos and swearing from other road users, not to mention me and my family stuck helpless in the middle of busy junctions looking for people to come help push my car. ( multiple errors pop up on dashboard from HV critical failure, aux battery fault and the charge falls from 92 to 0% and says no charge!)

This should scare away any potential buyer/ newbies looking at an EV for a fuss free experience. Now I am sending my kids to school in the Celerio. Boring and hum drum car maybe, but bulletproof reliability and backed by proper service.

Sharing my ordeal here, so that all members are aware of the pitfalls when switching to a new technology which is backed by a clueless service team.

I have escalated to higher management in Tata , but no response yet. Sending you the mail below for reference.

Dear xxxx Sir, xxxx Sir,

I am sorry to bother you once again with the trouble/breakdown I face with my 5 month old Tigor EV ( KL-01-xx-xxxx and 6200 kms run).

The car has broken down twice in 3 days.

As of today , my car is currently in my home with HV critical alert and aux battery issue ( this is despite getting the car back from Trivandrum Motors today morning assuring all is fine when the same problem occurred the day before).

My car broke down in a busy junction today close to home with my wife and kids in it with HV error ( see image) and I had to get auto drivers help to push it to the side of the road ( all the while all of these people were laughing and passing dreary comments about this is what happens when you buy an EV).

Let me walk you through the series of events

Breakdown # 1---- 12- Jan - Car stops at signal and auto shifts to neutral with HV alert issue and Battery light blinking. All panic at the junction and somehow the car shifts into D after multiple tries. I drop off kids to school and on return immediately the car battery goes from 63 to 0% and shuts down. Tow service is arranged and car is towed to Trivandrum motors, the dealer from whom I purchased the car ( after a wait of 4 hours in the blazing sun for RSA)

13- Jan - I told the service advisor that it might be due to the Exide battery ( aux battery) having a problem ( I am an automotive engineer). My Car's Exide battery had discharged itself TWICE in a span of 4 months and I had to get the local Exide shop to charge/ jumpstart it for me. Trivandrum Motors assures that they will look into it and fix it and will replace the Exide battery if needed.

Breakdown #2---- 15 Jan upon return of car from service center assuring everything is fine

11:00:am -Trivandrum motors returns the car assuring all is fine, software has been updated and no problem with the Exide battery

12:00 am - Car reaches home all fine, a journey of 10 kms

12.30--breakdown : had to go out to buy cake for my son and 2 kms into the journey, the car breaks down at signal with HV critical error and Aux battery charge issue. The car had to be pushed to the side of the road by helpful folks as mentioned above. The second breakdown is within 12 kms after getting back the car from service center !!!!

Somehow managed to bring the car back home after switching on and off multiple times. Upon reaching home, in a span of one hour, the vattery goes from 92% to 0% and nothing works now !! ( see last image)

It is deeply disappointing that a brand new product suffers multiple breakdowns and that too this is a car I have brought on my blind and unwavering loyalty to Tata Motors. This car is used to drop off and pick up my kids daily and now I am scared to send them in it. My eldest one who is in 11th grade has her exams and I don't want her to miss it by being stranded in the middle of the road.

I kindly request your support to help escalate the matter and find a prompt resolution for my case sir!

Unfortunate that a gem of a car is spoilt by people who have no interest in solving or listening to solutions.

Regards,

Sorry to hear this nanolover.
Were you following these guidelines about charging?

Yup always home charged and to 100% always. However for the last charge, the charge refused to rise above 26 to 65% even after 8 hours overnight ( usual charging time is 10% every hour) . I had this thought in the back of my mind that something is wrong, but car started normally and I went ahead. Which was a mistake now in hindsight.

Now the car has been taken on flatbed and prima facie diagnosis is some problem with Aux battery ( Exide) or wiring harness. God knows.

It looks like trivandrum is doomed to be stuck with incompetent dealers. Kulathunkal was the worst. Focuz was too far away, Mohandas didn't survive - I was hoping the new bunch are better, but at least looks like Trivandrum motors is more of the same
That is a very rare statement, coming from around here !
Update, looks like your nano was bought and serviced outside, That makes sense - I have had the same experience - Chennai and Bhubaneswar had good service centers, but in trivandrum I think we are doomed to be stuck with poor service. Anyway good luck!

As a fellow TML customer, I understand your grief. This company makes products which have no reliability and have fundamental compromises in quality which become more apparent with time and use.

You must keep following up with emails. One way to get their attention is to let them know that you are willing to reach out to highlight your plight through social media forums with a significant following, collaborating with YouTube channels like Man and Motors or DDS who bring such cases before an audience of millions. You can email the owners of these two channels with a link to this thread.

If TML still doesn’t respond, you can try dropping a link to this thread on Reddit. I saw a post by a person whose car had rusted and it got 1500+ upvotes and one Tata representative came in to respond personally because many people started sharing their horrible experiences with TML products.

It is always better to amicably settle things with reasonable people. But sometimes, one has to resort to such petty sounding threats because the company is completely tone deaf about the voice of its customers.

contact your RSM and get your battery checked. I feel something is not right with the battery, they will get it replaced under warranty.

Tata and it's dealers! I so badly wanted to buy the Harriee Or the Safari. From the test drive experience to dealing with the sales personnel, it was so mediocre, I decided to avoid the Brand. I wonder why this company alone finds it difficult to appoint good dealers. If making good cars is 50℅ of the battle, having good dealers is the other 50%.Sad, I hope you get your faith justified in some way and enjoy your car!

Looks like a case of either defective HV battery or a battery calibration issue. Either way, keep escalating this. Give it to the service center again after assurance from someone senior in Tata Motors that it will be looked into and ask for a lengthy test drive of atleast 30 KMs along with folks from the service center. Keep recording a video of the battery percentage. Any sudden drops can be attributed to premature HV battery failure. Push for a complete replacement of the battery to show how serious you are.


I am very sorry to see this. Hope Tata Motors handles this case well

Update: Car has been taken on a flatbed to the dealer ( pushing this car out of home without power steering and that too till this big truck was a muscle building exercise, not to mention the gyaan given by all locals on choosing an electric car, see we told you types) . Received confirmation from Towing services that vehicle has reached the dealer. None yet from the dealer though.

Battery failure means almost like engine replacement !! and that too in a 5 month old car, gives me the creeps, not to mention the EMI burning and associated headaches of not having a car.

Will keep the forum posted on what happens from now on

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Hope you get your car fixed and in good working condition soon.

Regarding this, I think you shouldn't pay heed to these. Just browse this forum alone for number of breakdowns of new ICE cars within first few months and you will see that it is just luck of the draw that you got a bad car. It has nothing to do with car bring electric or ICE. The general public is as ignorant as ever.

If the same had happened with an ICE car, people would have thrown shade on some other point.

I feel sorry for you going through this plight. Looks like TATA's EV's too aren't immune from unreliable internals.
Dearth of skilled EV technicians are shocking and unacceptable even in Trivandrum

Trivandrum motors is mediocre at best. Been there to hand over my uncle's Nexon for service. From my own experience, it is similar to Indus Maruti.

It is really sad to see that the OP had to face this. I hope he gets a resolution soon on this. This is the reason why I strongly condemn Indian and Chinese brands to the core. There is absolutely no consistency in their quality. The QC is very shabby. I mean this EV is still a new platform, I'm sure in the years to come, there will be issues of longevity of batteries, short recharge cycles, batteries going dead sooner than their Western and Japanese counterparts, etc.

The problem with Indian brands is their lack of attention to detail, the insensitive attitude, and the lack of will to go the extra mile and invest in good R&D. If they can earn profits with a bare minimum investment, they're ready to sell lemons to the public who invest in the brand thinking that they're buying a well researched product.

Indian and Chinese brands are cheaper than competition for a reason. I'm strongly against you get what you pay for philosophy but yes in case of Indian, Chinese and to a large extent, Korean brands, I do say you get what you pay for. I've noticed a lot of cost cutting and cheaping out in essential areas by these manufacturers and would never recommend them to anyone. German and Japanese Vehicles may be over priced but still they would not be cutting corners in essential areas. The consistency will be there and so will be the QC.

As an ex-owner I completely agree. It's funny when people say if Tata can make a 5 start car and price it reasonably, then anyone can. Truth is that they cut corners like crazy, be it sales, service, QC, engine and so on. Most of the time, for any minor issue reported their usual response is " All models have this issue" I mean is that supposed to make me feel better that others too are suffering the same issue?

They don't make 5 star cars because they care for their customers, they went for it as it's easier to excel in this one parameter than to correct everything else wrong with their product. They never cared when I had niggles on my brand new car.

One more weird thing I noticed was that their billing always had issues, either printer was not working or server has issues. They didn't even give me bill for the handrest I bought for 5k.

Would buy 4 star rated Japanese car over Tata 10/10 times. Mahindra at least resolves issues, so they are easily better of the two.

I think you should insist on TML sending in engineers from the factory to inspect this issue. This doesn't look like something which can be correctly diagnosed by the folks at the service center, going by the experiences you've had so far.

As a former Tata Motors customer, I totally commiserate with your problems. QC is non-existent at the factory. Service Centres consist of a bunch of clueless folks. I sold my Harrier in 3 years because of the pain I was put through. Customer service is a fancy buzzword for them.