[GoBabyGo]

Here is my take on my specific requirement. Wanted to buy Comet EV, but its top end model do not justify its price. Tiago EV is good, but interior is a bit dated. I will wait for 6 more months and anticipate Punch EV at Rs.9.99 lacs ex showroom Delhi for XT MR variant or will wait for a year or so for a dedicated EV platform small car from BYD or MG or some other mainstream manufacturer within 10-12 lacs ex showroom Delhi for mid variant.

The only worry I have is government can any day remove FAME II & State Govt. subsidy (anytime after October 2023) and we will have to pay full RTO charges which will make EV more expensive.

I have Honda City MT for my longer drives. I need EV with real world range of around 170km to 200km. I am okay to charge my EV once in two days just as I charge my mobile everyday. It is not difficult to make EV charging a daily or once in two days habit.

[Manuggn]

Dear all

Update 3

After booking Comet today I got the opportunity to test drive and I was truely disappointed.

May be it was the test drive vehicle or my sheer bad luck. But multiple issues with test drive vehicles were observed.

- Alignment of vehicle was totally off and car was moving towards right very sharply.
- Breakes were not at all effective and making screeching sound while breaking.
- Motor noise was extremely loud and very evident in the vehicle.

It seems these were all car specific issues but I was totally disappointed. Car was in such a bad shape that I asked MG sales person to drive the car back to showroom as I was not able to drive the car due to extremely bad alignment.

I have requested MG to get another Test drive vehicle arranged. But as of now I believe I will cancel the booking and wait for few months till a better EV is available.

-

[Formula1]

Originally Posted by Manuggn

After booking Comet today I got the opportunity to test drive and I was truly disappointed.

What was the odometer reading?

This doesn't bode well for long-term reliability.

[GoBabyGo]

Originally Posted by Manuggn

After booking Comet today I got the opportunity to test drive and I was truly disappointed.

Hi Manuggn - I was also seriously considering Comet EV (before the price release of other variants), but as of now I feel it is better to wait for 6 months to get a better budget EV i.e. Punch EV. I hope Punch EV will come under 10 lacs ex showroom Delhi-NCR (One model above base say XT).

I am very impressed with EV drive (drove MG ZS EV of my known) and since my 98% yearly drive in within city, I have decided that my next car will be an EV (around 10 lacs ex showroom Delhi). I am just hoping that by the time a good EV hit the market, Govt. of India continue to offer FAME II and State Govt. subsidy on EVs. I have Honda City MT for my long distance drives.

[shortbread]

I think one needs to approach the comet as a quadricycle rather than a proper car, this way we keep our expectations in check. The micro wheels, dwarf size, very short wheelbase means it'll never feel like driving a proper car. On the other hand as a quadricycle, it's a good package albeit a pricey one.

[Night Raven]

I was seriously considering the Comet as a replacement for my father’s Nano. The Nano has been serving him for over 11 years now. Lack of reverse camera, power windows and being a manual has started troubling him now, mostly because of his age related limitations. For us this was the perfect modernised replacement for the Nano. All the excitement just went away with the pricing tactics.

[KPR]

Today I drove my Alto to work. Perfect AC, ample torque and perfect dimension for stop go traffic. From this thread I see many are eyeing Comet for office/city commutes. At 5 Lakhs on road and an amount of another 5 Lakhs or 5000 liters of Gasoline, I can drive my Alto for 60000 kms inside city with absolutely no worry about battery degradation, range anxiety for 10L on road price of a Comet. Companies, government are hell bent in selling EVs. Beware.

[cryptarchy]

Originally Posted by KPR

At 5 Lakhs on road and an amount of another 5 Lakhs or 5000 liters of Gasoline, I can drive my Alto for 60000 kms inside city with absolutely no worry about battery degradation, range anxiety for 10L on road price of a Comet. Companies, government are hell bent in selling EVs. Beware.

Some people buy/advocate EVs because of low cost of running but what they don’t realise is that the cost of fuel is built into the car price.

[Comrade]

Slightly OT but I am eagerly waiting for BYD to launch their latest small hatchback (Seagull) in India. This will blow out all the competition if pricing is similar to China (around $11,000).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oipX7UPdKuE

[Bluengel180]

Originally Posted by KPR

Today I drove my Alto to work. Perfect AC, ample torque and perfect dimension for stop go traffic. From this thread I see many are eyeing Comet for office/city commutes. At 5 Lakhs on road and an amount of another 5 Lakhs or 5000 liters of Gasoline, I can drive my Alto for 60000 kms inside city with absolutely no worry about battery degradation, range anxiety for 10L on road price of a Comet. Companies, government are hell bent in selling EVs. Beware.

People have other priorities in a car as well and not everyone buys a vehicle for "Kitna deti hai".

By that logic I can buy and drive an Alto for 120000kms instead of buying a Thar which has a drinking problem, Will I? absolutely not.

EV's have more benefits than the cost of running alone. Let us not bring this tired argument into every EV thread. The entire forum is dedicated to ICE cars where the alto's mileage can be adequately flaunted.

[KPR]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

People have other priorities in a car as well and not everyone buys a vehicle for "Kitna deti hai".

By that logic I can buy and drive an Alto for 120000kms instead of buying a Thar which has a drinking problem, Will I? absolutely not.

EV's have more benefits than the cost of running alone. Let us not bring this tired argument into every EV thread. The entire forum is dedicated to ICE cars where the alto's mileage can be adequately flaunted.

If you read the post again it is not mileage flaunt. It is just numbers of how an EV and ICE works out for prospective buyers. Of course there are two sides of a coin.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

EV's have more benefits than the cost of running alone. Let us not bring this tired argument into every EV thread. The entire forum is dedicated to ICE cars where the alto's mileage can be adequately flaunted.

I am really sick and tired of people barging in on EV car threads and lecturing others to stop buying EVs. Every youtube Nexon EV video that I saw, comments section was full of people lecturing others about evils of EV, how EVs pollute more than ICE ( no, they don't ) and blah, blah, blah...And they just go and on and on...Almost like an anti-EV agenda. Why? I don't like a few brands of cars but I don't descend on those threads and tell 'em not to buy those brands. Let people buy what they want. No, I don't own an EV yet but my next car sure will be.

I'm aware that battery-pack manufacture harms environment. But then, so does crude extraction, crude-shipping, refining, transportation and pump sales. Comparing environment damage caused by both involves very complex set of mathematics but I am sure if someone undertakes that study, the ICE will turn out to be much more polluting than EVs. With EVs, I have seen some examples where they drive it completely free, on solar charge.

Why am I inclined towards EVs? Saving planet? Hell no. I don't care a hoot about that when everyone else is polluting. I'm not a goody-goody, holy-holy saint. I'm a greedy selfish man who sees where he can save a penny. For me, the silent drive and petrol/diesel-beating acceleration ( by a mile ) are enough to lean towards EV. And, oh, one other thing. I have driven all kinds of automatic cars, DCT/DSG, TC, CVT/IVT, AMT/AGS. No automatic gearbox pleased me. All types suffer from same malaise, upshift/downshift a second too soon or a second too late. Then hiccups, jerks, delays on shifts. Which is why I have come to appreciate GEARLESS drive of EVs. Yes, they have no gear ratios. Just one long single acceleration drive, like a plane on a take-off run.

[TeddyBear]

Originally Posted by kadanaJ

It's the Tiago XT medium-range that ends up being a worthy competitor. The important features are all there. It's a premium of Rs. 1.4 lakh, but that additional money gets you 2 extra speakers and doors! (I can't believe I'm selling doors as a feature). You get a bit more power and interior space as well. The only miss is a rear camera, which one can easily get installed after-market.

Tiago has a comfortable rear seat with thigh support and decent leg room.
4 Start Safety is also worth mentioning.

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by Bluengel180

People have other priorities in a car as well and not everyone buys a vehicle for "Kitna deti hai".
By that logic I can buy and drive an Alto for 120000kms instead of buying a Thar which has a drinking problem, Will I? absolutely not....

Yes, but you are missing the key point in the comparison made by KPR - it was for a compact city car (EV/ICE whatever).
The Thar surely is no compact city car.

Originally Posted by pgsagar

I am really sick and tired of people barging in on EV car threads and lecturing others to stop buying EVs

Well, For some people "Kitna deti hai" is an important factor for some others (like me) "Kitna dena hai" is an important factor.
To me the math put out by KPR makes a case as some one interested in a compact, economical city car. The MG Comet, although compact, is not economical (based on the number of members who think it is overpriced).

Originally Posted by pgsagar

Which is why I have come to appreciate GEARLESS drive of EVs. Yes, they have no gear ratios. Just one long single acceleration drive, like a plane on a take-off run.

Agree, the super smooth ride and the super quite ride are for sure plus points of an EV.

[SS-Traveller]

I had the opportunity to TD a Comet this afternoon, and benchmark it against my E2O Plus P6. Somehow in the last few days, I had missed the detailed pricing that had been announced by MG, and the fact that the top model costs ~₹10.5 lakhs on the road in Delhi was the first shocker - I was fixated on the ~₹8 lakh price announced, and thought the car with all its bells and whistles would be around ₹8.5 to 8.75 lakhs OTR. My fault for not keeping track.

It certainly is a very attractive and cute looking car. It goes reasonably fast, but not in the league of the Nexon EV. The E2O will keep up in F mode upto 60 km/h with the Comet in 'Eco' mode, and in B (boost) mode with the Comet's 'Normal' mode.





My wife flatly refused to struggle to get into the rear seat. There just wasn't enough space for her to get in and out, she said. So poor Mr. Manish was confined to the rear seat, while my wife made herself comfortable in the front passenger seat.





As soon as she was seated, I elbowed her in her right arm sharply as I turned the dial to Drive mode. For the rest of the drive, despite my apologies, she sat half-turned in her seat, with her right arm firmly out of the way of my elbow. Took her a while to cool down!

The car moves off smoothly, but there's no creep function as in most automatics and EVs, including the E2O. So manoeuvring in and out of parking spaces meant switching between the A & B pedals, and not just modulating the brake pedal for accurate positioning. This one feature (or the lack of it) made me lose my cool a couple of times. Oh, and the Comet has the grabbiest brakes of any car I've driven in a long while, or maybe this particular vehicle had that problem.

Talking of cooling, the AC works well, is a lot less noisy than my E2O, and though not a chiller in the 42°C ambient temperature outside, does the job reasonably well (at the expense of battery charge, of course). For the 8-km road test, we ran down the charge from 76% to 71% - and this was while driving in a leisurely fashion, never exceeding 50 km/h. My E2O would drain 10% battery for a similar trip with AC on, so based on this, the Comet ought to run about 145-150 km from 100% to 20% SOC. I wouldn't go below 20% for any EV unless it's a dire emergency. So my place to Greater Noida and back on a hot summer day, might trigger range anxiety in the Comet, but is impossible in the E2O.

The suspension is silent over very rough roads (the E2O does make some noise, but it's nearly 6.5 years and 40k km old), but body roll and pitch is uncomfortable unless slowing right down to below 10 km/h. The little tyres don't ride over bumps and potholes easily, and the E2O shows its advantage here with its 14" wheels.

Manoeuvrability is fantastic, the steering is light at parking speeds, and visibility all around is superb, even without mod-cons like the reversing camera or 360° view. Now, I park in reverse down a narrow lane, and I've parked much bigger vehicles in my parking slot, like the Scorpio / Ciaz. The E2O made things too easy, but the Comet is more like a motorbike with a roof!

Here are a few pics to compare the size of the two cars alongside each other:









The boot space is non-existent in the Comet, and here's a comparison pic. So no airport pickup / dropping duty for 2 people with luggage in this car, which the E2O effortlessly manages:



The door pockets are too slim:


And the rear seat has not enough knee space, length or thigh support for comfort. Here, the setup in both cars is with the front seat adjusted for my height, with me sitting behind that seat (top pics = Comet, bottom pics = E2O Plus):



When seated behind the wheel, there is too much information, in too small a font, with too low a brightness in the extra-bright summer sunlight of Delhi, on the huge expanse of screen in front. Some of the writing is not even legible, and it would be worse if I were to wear sunglasses. That screen turned out to be quite a distraction while driving! I am 'nit'-picking here in an entirely different sense, but there should have been a slider to turn up the brightness of the screen like that of smartphones, and some sort of option to increase font sizes.







Tried to turn on the headlights, and another surprise - the light switch at the end of the right stalk has to be turned anticlockwise to turn the lights on, and clockwise to the off position. Why, MG?

All in all, I am put off by this overpriced little toy, which doesn't even have space for me to park my mobile phone safely, and am left wondering why Mahindra discontinued the E2O Plus. With a better battery pack and motor for better range and top speed, that car would have been the perfect city car - not too small, not too cramped, and certainly not as quirky as the Comet. But then, Mahindra has a different customer in mind, with its bigger, pricier EV that competes with the Nexon - the XUV4OO... and my first spotting while I was driving the Comet.