[GoBabyGo]

Hi, Curvv.ev is an excellent effort by Tata and it will sell in good numbers (as in EV sales). I must say Tata is doing excellent work in EV portfolio and hope they will continue to bring great products in future too.

Till decade ago, the biggest USP for a Tata passenger vehicle was inside space, however, over the last 10 years, their majority of vehicle offers just about acceptable space at the rear. Although nothing can be done now, but I wish Tata could have reduced the boot space to 450 litre and increase the rear seat space in Curvv.ev.

I am eyeing either Tata or Mahindra beat Hyundai and become India's No. 2 manufacturer consistently and I hope it is not too far away, may be 6 months to 9 months from now.

My best wishes to Tata & its Team for Curvv.ev and Curvv ICE

[Col Mehta]

While appreciating the fact that it's a coupe style which will have compromised headroom at the back, I'm fairly disappointed with the overall rear seat space management. Look at the under thigh support there. Pathetic! Anyone taller than the average Indian height is not going to feel comfortable at all. Couple of potential buyers in my circle who were eagerly waiting for the launch have decided against the Curvv.

Hopefully the ICE versions will at least have better under thigh support.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Nice review!

I liked the coupe styling of the Curvv.

But I had a few dealbreakers after I checked it out in the showroom

1. Interior layout : Felt exactly as if I was sitting in Nexon

The front half is Nexon. The CURVV is based on X1 platform stretched by 65odd millimetres in wheelbase. Look carefully at the front doors of the CURVV and Nexon. The doors are common, the door apertures are common, the door pads are common. The front "A-pillar" rake angle is similar. The wiper mounts on the cowl panel too are the same. The pedal mountings are same. The front door outer skin is new w.r.t. Curvv. The dash is largely commonised with Nexon with minor differences.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

So if ICE (specially diesel) is being considered, I think one could rather go for the Nexon 1.5 turbodiesel instead of Curvv and avoid paying more tax to the government.

Agree. A diesel, DCT, top of the line Nexon variant is in the offing and can be a very nice option indeed.

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Having used the Creta, I definitely don't think Curvv will sway any prospective creta customer away from Hyundai showroom. The creta is more spacious, has better seats and feels much better finished in my opinion.

Yes. Also the refinement. Hyundai NVH was always superior compared to competitors in the Indian market, right from the days of the original 1st gen Santro (when compared to the Maruti Zen)

[Gurudatta Nayak]

Charging rate of 1.2C is applicable to Curve EV 45kwh or only for 55kwh?

[Chetan_Rao]

Curvv.ev has a lot going for it.

Dedicated EV platform, competent powertrain, road presence, loaded with features/kit, great sound system, et al. It's a well-rounded package, compellingly priced, with little immediate competition (no more Kona, and ZS EV needs a refresh).

And yet, our first reaction looking at it, was how will a salesperson differentiate it from the Nexon EV on the showroom floor, when the inevitable cross-shopping happens? With Nexon EV placed a price segment below and added discounts, we're talking significant money, so a customer will justifiably expect significant value for the differential paid.

I won't get into rehashing Omkar's excellent write-up, but I do want to touch on a few 'small yet significant things'.

I usually pay extra attention to ergonomics, both because it's my top-most priority when evaluating a car (no amount of features can make up for discomfort), and also because as a 5'7", lean built, proportionate torso specimen, I'm the quintessential 'average Joe customer' size cabin designers usually focus on.

Ergonomics vary, often even for similarly-sized people and no two bodies are the same, but if the ergonomics work for me, they're likely to work for a majority of the targeted customers.

Driving Position & Front Row:

The tall(er) floor leads to elevated pedal placement and foot position in the driver footwell, which means I have to sit further back than I normally would to keep my thighs and ankles comfortable, but my adjustment range is limited both by the missing steering reach adjustment, and potentially eating into the rear right passenger's already-not-generous legroom. Easily fixable with a rake + reach adjustable steering wheel.

The combination of the sharply raked front windscreen, thick A-pillar and large ORVM creates a sizeable blind-spot, noticeable enough that we drove extra carefully on narrow mountain roads with 2-way traffic.

I unexpectedly bumped my head getting in & out of the driver's seat quite a few times, which is rare for someone my size.

Our test drive car had a persistent windshield fogging problem, which we narrowed down to a leaky front demister vent that won't close fully even when not in use. We checked a few other cars and those didn't seem to have the issue. Inconsistent QC, most likely.



Front passenger seat has limited fore-aft travel range, and has decent legroom only at its lower settings. If you want to sit higher up as some passengers prefer, to help mitigate claustrophobia and motion sickness, you're too close to the dashboard, and limited tucking room for your feet & knees under the glovebox (tall floor at it again!).

Accessibility to the seat-side manual adjustment levers is tight, so if you're long-armed and/or large-palmed (I'm the latter), you're better off adjusting your seat before starting off to avoid gymnastics. If the occupant is fond of metal accessories, your doorpad trim will be doing a solid cat-scratch-pad impression pretty soon!



Tata offer a portable coffee-maker as an official accessory, but there's no cupholder in the front row. Where am I supposed to stick my drink, Tata?

Another quirk, that I discovered entirely by accident is on the door pocket. The bottle holder slot is angled forward, and the narrowing-towards-the-front design meant when we slammed the brakes to test emergency braking behavior (done on an empty stretch in controlled conditions, do not try on congested roads or with traffic behind), the bottle slid out of the pocket straight into the footwell! Shape & weight of bottle may be a factor, but something worth checking nonetheless to avoid a potential safety hazard.



Second Row:

Omkar has already spoken to the compromised ergonomics, which is a shame because with its larger dimensions, I was expecting rear passenger + boot space to be a key differentiator for Curvv from its C-SUV sibling. I'm relatively tiny @ 5'7" and Omkar isn't exactly a giant at 5'10", so taller, well-fed passengers aren't exactly going to be chuffed sitting there. The seat-back recline is noticeable but not significant, and doesn't do a lot to improve 2nd-row ergonomics.

Boot:

Space is good, the electric boot controls are a great convenience and a party trick, but the unintuitive 2-button implementation is going to take some getting used to. Could've so easily been a 3-way switch (2 direction toggles plus a click).

Other Assorted Observations:

Inconsistent panel gaps are an eyesore for any car, but especially a 'premium' offering costing 2 million rupees. I thought I was imagining things or the cuts & creases design was causing an illusion, but no, the paint mismatch is very real. This was present on other cars in the media drive fleet too, so not a one-off either. This is a brand-new car that's barely seen any sunlight until now, it'll look significantly worse with even a year's worth of exposure. Should not happen in today's age of mechanised painting and shade matching. For what it's worth, my Tiago JTP had the same issue when new 5 years ago, so there's form here.





The beading on the door's bottom edge, that ensures the running board doesn't collect muck (esp. in rainy season) and mess up your clothes getting in & out. Nifty!



The frunk has a soft close mechanism, which is a pleasant little attention-to-detail in a place very few are likely to look.

Summing up, I can only repeat what I began with. Curvv has a lot going for it, filled to the brim with kit and thoughtful touches in unlikely places, but finds itself wanting in two key areas; differentiation from the Nexon EV, and optimally utilising the extra space liberated by its larger dimensions.

We'll have to wait and see what potential customers make of it.

[PrasannaDhana]

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp

Whoh, that's too bad. Looks like you are not even sitting straight. So, just for clarity, is it the same with Nexon, which would mean, absolutely no extra vertical room in the Curvv EV? How are things with Altroz, is it better/same or worse?

Altroz and Nexon are much better when it comes to headroom at the rear.

I expect Curvv ICE to be better as the EV has a raised floor, which makes things worse. Curvv ICE must have better headroom as well as underthigh support (due to lower floor).

Altroz Racer in the R2 and R3 variants have poor headroom too (due to sunroof + raised seat height for motorized seats).


By the way, among all curvv EV reviews on YouTube, this stood out. It felt more like a roast than of a review.

https://youtu.be/fKbphOdYinI?si=QlHmALSq1du4YdzT

[vippul4friends]

This is for all the folks who were hoping TAMO to reduce the boot space and increase the rear legroom.

If the rear seat was pushed further back, the sloping roofline would have reduced the headspace. Hence, if you're looking to blame something for the rear leg space, it's the roofline. Not the boot space.

And the roofline is what makes this vehicle a coupe. So we can't blame that either.

Only thing we can do is to bang our head (figuratively or literally, your choice).
:(

[Motard_Blr]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Drive review summary by Evo India.



Link:

This was TML's chance to make a good first impression on the journos but they screwed it up.

It's clear that TML don't care enough about what customers and the media think about them. They didn't even bother to check the first drive cars thoroughly before allowing journos to drive them. This is a repeat issue for TML.

Looks like the Curvv is going to be another car that we might like but hesitate to buy or recommend. So sad...

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by Omkar

The floor is high thanks to the battery placed beneath which means that tall people will have a knees-up seating position.

If the "knees up" position is because of the battery does it mean the ICE Curvv will be better? Or is the floor height common for both?

[darkgamer]

Originally Posted by vippul4friends

This is for all the folks who were hoping TAMO to reduce the boot space and increase the rear legroom.

If the rear seat was pushed further back, the sloping roofline would have reduced the headspace. Hence, if you're looking to blame something for the rear leg space, it's the roofline. Not the boot space.

And the roofline is what makes this vehicle a coupe. So we can't blame that either.

Only thing we can do is to bang our head (figuratively or literally, your choice).
:(

I guess then a coupe just needs to be 4.5m or above for it to make sense in the rear seats, or to be made taller all around so that even after sloping it doesn't go too low to bang against the head.

I've sat in the Curvv EV and while the headroom is still manageable, the seat and legroom is absolutely unacceptable.

Me and my brother are both ~5'10" and we both felt the legroom unacceptable. We both felt that my i10 nios has better legroom and especially that you don't sit in a knees up position.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

The paint mismatch is very real. This was present on other cars in the media drive fleet too, so not a one-off either.

Was there any other color on display was this issue in that color as well?

On the "Rear Space" - Yes, the rear space is less. Yes, the floor is raised due to battery. If you compare the dimensions of the car with segment leader Creta, the difference is quite obvious.

Creta dimensions - 4330x1790x1635 Wheelbase - 2610
Cruvv dimensions - 4310x1810x1637 Wheelbase - 2560

Creta is 2 cm longer and has 5 cm longer wheelbase. So ideally they should have liberated 3cm more wheel base. Why they couldn't, is due to the coupe design. As you increase the wheelbase, you will have to increase the height of the car as well so that the head room remains the same. This might have stopped the designers from taking it too far.

In the recent review of GLC 43, teambhp had the similar observation when comparing it with GLC300 - Image link

At 5’10” tall, I had just enough legroom behind my driving position. In comparison with the regular GLC, the headroom is roughly an inch and a half to two inches less. While the headroom was enough for me, someone who’s taller than 6 feet would feel it tight:

Having said that I had a question to all those who are talking about lack of rear space

1. How much does a rear seat comfort matter in today's age of nuclear families until unless you are driven around by a chauffeur?

I have sat for a countable 2-3 times in rear seat of each car that i owned. Currently I drive a Nexon Max. 70% percent of my drive is solo, 20% is with 2 adults + 1 kid and rest 10% is with 3/4 adults and a kid. My parents (Dad is 5'9'') have never complained about the rear seat being uncomfortable over long distances, we have travelled 300 kms in a day with 4 adults + 1 kid.

[Flash777]

Loved the Coupe styling. Am extremely impressed with the Power and Range for the Price point. Rear space could have been better but not a deal breaker for the average sized Indian. Tata throwing a kitchen sink of a feature list coupled with Dynamics and Safety makes this a must consideration around 20 lakhs.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

Was there any other color on display was this issue in that color as well?

Media fleet was a mix of Virtual Sunshine (the one we got) and Pure Grey (there's a reference pic in the review).

Flag-off was early morning, and we only noticed the paint thingy once we were shooting at location. All cars around us were the same color we had, and none of the Grey ones were returned the same time as us so we couldn't check.

We're hoping this is fixed in production specimens.

How much does a rear seat comfort matter in today's age of nuclear families until unless you are driven around by a chauffeur?

Multi-car garages are still a minority, and having adults in the rear not uncommon. Lateral space should be manageable for average sized people, but the footwell ergonomics are going to bother pretty much everyone who sits there.

The ICE version may have better ergonomics as the floor can be comparatively lower, but that remains to be seen.

[Vtach]

What's that extra length of beading doing flailing beyond the edge of that door?
And those two holes with peeping yellow insulation foam?

Unacceptable in a 20L car, sir.

[Alfresco]

Does the Curvv also have the problem of not charging more than 4 consecutive DC Fast Charges?
This is the only problem that have been having with my Nexon EV.
Would love to upgrade to Curvv mainly due to the enhanced range but it won’t be of much use if the battery tech is the same.