[Prasidhi]

Originally Posted by alok9345

After all the ordeal I described earlier, I heard from KHT that they have a grey Max available that they have gotten allocation for and can allocate to me. I contemplated for a bit and after all the wait and uncertainty, decided to give in. They've mentioned it is in transit and asked me to transfer 2L to then, which I haven't yet and considering it is the usual with other people as well, I don't mind doing, and considering this was a long weekend, they haven't yet forced me to but have allocated the vehicle and shared the VIN. The manufacturing is of July and the Zconnect and Service app showed the vehicle linked to my number, so I'm happy with that.

The SA says there's no extended warranty for max and I've asked him to recheck considering some members here have gotten it.

Also, insurance prices seem to have skyrocketed. I'm getting quotes of 65-75k. Royal sundaram (same provider given by dealer quoting 74k) has given a separate quote to me directly for 55k with same inclusions except engine protect which they said is not required for the car. Any thoughts?

On accessories, they claim that the 3D floor mats fit the max and I can check, which I will during the PDI. Coming to the PDI, any specific things to keep in mind during the PDI for EVs/Max? As far as I understand, a drive won't be possible.

Grey Max owners, what's the real life review of the colour? I never considered it, but think it might stand out considering there are probably 80% buyers for Teal!

On a separate note, before I got the call I was hoping for Mahindra's reveal today to have some exciting upcoming launches in 2022, and then wait that out, but considering the allotment and Mahindra's late 2024, I'm glad the allotment came through!

Good atleast you got a car. My experience with KHT motors is horrible. To get an update from them requires Herculean effort. My SA always says, "I don't know sir", "No idea sir" for almost all queries on delivery dates.

[XRoader_001]

Off topic ,tata ev motors have sent some media outlets to block their dates on 29th and 30th August for a media Walkaround event.

More Details & formal invite of the event will be followed via email.

Let’s wait for more information in days to come.

[rkmunjuluri]

Originally Posted by alok9345

After all the ordeal I described earlier, I heard from KHT that they have a grey Max available that they have gotten allocation for and can allocate to me.

Also, insurance prices seem to have skyrocketed. I'm getting quotes of 65-75k. Royal sundaram (same provider given by dealer quoting 74k) has given a separate quote to me directly for 55k with same inclusions except engine protect which they said is not required for the car. Any thoughts?

On accessories, they claim that the 3D floor mats fit the max and I can check, which I will during the PDI. Coming to the PDI, any specific things to keep in mind during the PDI for EVs/Max? As far as I understand, a drive won't be possible.

Grey Max owners, what's the real life review of the colour? I never considered it, but think it might stand out considering there are probably 80% buyers for Teal!

Hi Alok, Congratulations on the allocation. I have a Grey Max and it was also delivered through KHT motors on June 30th of this Year. Probably the first Grey max in Bangalore. It looks much better in real life than in photos/visuals on the Tata website. Attaching few pics, after PPF was done at kriti Car Care.








I have currently the 3D mats and they fit fine. I actually ordered 7D mats and the team has been calling me to get those installed, 3D rubber mats are stop gap arrangement provided by dealer. As I was out of station, I haven't had the chance to get them installed. I will probably check those 7D mats in this week.
For the Insurance, get the Insurance contact details from dealership and talk to them. Initially I was given a quote of 1.1 lakhs and when I shared quotes from Acko and Digit, they provided revised quotes in the range of 55K to 70K. So talk to them and see if the prices can be reduced further.

During PDI, a drive wont be possible. But ensure car is kept in open and you are actually doing the PDI in sunlight. Perform a thorough check of paint and that blue coloured line which runs through out the body. There will be lot of places which are not finished appropriately. Also check the sunroof edges door edges. Do not forget the dashboard and infotainment fitting and finish. DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK PICS of any imperfections you find during PDI. If you highlight those now, during PDI, you can get them to correct those before delivery or during first Service. Also check the car from various angels for any small dents. (this is a tip given by Kriti Car care team)

[rkmunjuluri]

After almost 49 days into the ownership of EV max and clocking 4,198 KMS, I think I am in a decent position to provide some insights into owning an EV Max. Here are few things for the prospective Max buyers out there.

I will try to talk about the things I was unable to find before my purchase and will start with a lot of "Not so good" aspects.

1. Getting into the car and getting out of the car for the rear passengers is little difficult and you will have to always open the door fully to make their movement smooth.

2. Due to the high ground clearance of the car, getting into the car for older people, children and short people (less than 5 Feet) will be a struggle. unfortunately you cannot get the "Side Step" available in accessories for Nexon installed for Nexon EV or EV max, as the High Voltage wires are running all around the places where this step will have to be fixed. So if you are having senior citizens at home and they will be extensively using the car, then think again before buying this car.

3. Paint Finish, interiors finish is not of Top quality. If you have a keen eye, you will be able to find many imperfections, so be ready for that when you are trying to buy any Tata motors Product. (based on my experience and feedback from at least 3 car detailers including Kriti Car care who did the PPF for my Max)

4. It will be a pain to maintain the seats for the top variant. Suggestions is for at least long drives, carry some towels to use them as seat covers, if you are gong to have rear seat passengers.

5. The Boot cover, used as a lid on the Spare wheel is of very bad quality. Handle it gently and hope that you will have to use it only a limited number of times in the life time of the car.

6. I am not sure if it is only with this car design or its me, but the A pillar causes massive blind spot. Taking those U turns and right turns, you should be extra cautious.

7. Steering wheel by design I think is made to feel really heavy. After the first few days of driving, I had ache in my wrists (I am a single hand on steering wheel kind of guy)

8. Air conditioning works very well only when the temperature you set inside the car is at least 3 degrees below the temperature outside. The bigger the difference, the better. If you are staying in a place where the temperatures are always hovering around low 20's I would suggest you to keep your windows open a little even if you are running AC around 17, to avoid frequent fogging. Though the defogger works really well, it is annoying to keep defogging every 10 to 15 mins.

9. If you think you can adapt to driving an EV in a conservative manner in city traffic and extract maximum range. Think Again. I tried my best for 4 to 5 weeks to ensure I drive the car in City and eco modes only and not allow the green bar in MID go beyond 2nd line when accelerating. Guess what, I was so damn frustrated seeing all the cars fly past me as I was not gaining enough speed quickly. Also it was just adding more and more cars in front of me during traffic hours. Ultimately I gave up and drive it like a petrol car, I am much happier and content now and least bothered about the range being only around 240 to 260 KMS per full charge. (by the way I am neither a very spirited driver nor a sedate one, I prefer sticking to my lane and sticking to my spot in traffic and hate it when others can easily stick their cars between me and the traffic in front of me)

10. Best mileage on highway drives is attained when the terrain is almost flat or there isn't much difference in the altitude of your starting and ending points. I did Bangalore (900 mts above sea level) to Ongole (9 mts from Sea level) twice due to family functions and the onward journey from Bangalore is very good as we are going down hill. I was able to extract close to 280 kms range on full charge while doing cruising at 100kms most of the time and pushing the car to 110 and 120 at times without engaging sports mode. For return journeys I was unable to extract even 260 while doing speeds of 85 to 90 as well. Plugshare application on laptop is best suited to plan these kind of trips, so please do your research well before you plan your trip. As a thumb rule you get at least 2.4 to 2.6 kms per percentage drop for highway drives irrespective of your driving style (eco and city modes only). With terrain coming into play, it can hugely impact this and can move this to as low as 2.2 Kms per percentage of charge to as high as 3.4 kms per percentage. (Which is like getting 5.5 kms to 8.5 kms range per KWH)

11. Always add +2 hours for any long trip you plan, to the time shown by google maps, provided the distance is with in 550 KMS range. Anything beyond this and provided you do not have charging infrastructure where you are going to end up, add at least another 40 mins for 200 KMS increment. If the altitude differences are minimal then this will reduce to less than 1 hour and 30 mins respectively for 550kms and 200 KMS increments there after.

12. As the charging infrastructure in Karnataka, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana is limited compared to Kerala and Tamil Nadu, please have plan A, Plan B and Plan C for every long trip planned with in these states.


Now coming to good things about the car.

1. Suspension and handling felt like a dream. Bad road patches are not to be worried about. High speeds (80+) on the curves and turns, no problem at all. The car feels very grounded and provides huge amount of confidence to push it even further.

2. Disk brakes are very efficient and regenerative breaking is also very handy. During those highway drives, you will not feel any pain in munching down those miles with the confidence inspired by the disc brakes and convenience provided by single pedal driving because of regenerative braking.

3. Some inbuilt safety features are really nice and they are a boon. For instance, if you are in stand still state in drive mode for long, the parking break will automatically get applied. If you do not wear the seat belt, the car will not move. If you switch off your car without turning the gear knob into N or P, it will automatically engage the parking break.

4. Ergonomics for the front seats are good, though lacking enough thigh support, you wont feel tired even after 3 to 4 hours of continuous driving.

5. Headlights are really powerful and have a very good throw. When combined with high beam and fog lamps, you can plan all those night drives without any worry.

6. Sunroof is just enough and with the sun roof door open but keeping the sunroof closed, we get a lot of light into the car and provides a feel of being in a lot more roomier and bigger car. Also all those people with motion sickness feel a little more better as now the amount of light in the cabin is more and they get a sense of being in an open top vehicle. Children will have a lot of fun with sunroof.

7. I am no Audiophile, but the sound system by Harman is pretty good (I upgraded from a 2012 WagonR). It has enough clarity around vocals while able to distinguish sounds by various instruments pretty nicely.

8. The USB port allows for Fast charge even while using the phone for Android Auto or Apple Car play. This removes the worry about keeping the phone charged during those long journeys and using it for music and other activities as needed.

9. AC is powerful and Auto AC does the job very well. I was able to cool down the cabin with 5 passengers in less than 2 mins after parking the vehicle in sun for almost 3 hours in 38 degrees, using Auto AC set to 23 degrees.

10. Auto Hold is a boon in many aspects. It provides much relief to our legs and mind both as we do not have to keep pressing the break pedal for long in stop and go traffic and never have to worry about rolling back on forward while performing stop and go on inclined surfaces.

11. Shifting between the regen modes and the drive modes is very fast. If you want to overtake some one at a signal or on a highway, just click the sports mode button and vanish. The wide grin on your face will make the Joker (Batman) jealous.

12. Cost of running the EV is so less, you will forget about your 2 wheeler you had purchased for those mundane activities of short distances. While doing couple of trips recently I felt the Highway tolls were costlier than the charging costs for the EV.

13. Build quality of the exteriors is really solid. I had 3 mishaps already, nothing serious and only in one instance it was my fault. The second instance is where the build quality was shown with the moped hitting me from behind at a traffic signal was in shambles with its entire front facing plastic broken to pieces and leaving the headlight dangling, while I had few scratches on the PPF.

14. God forbid, none of you have to ever face this situation, but I had to traverse through around 60 to 80 meters stretch of road in Bangalore, where the water logging was up to 1/4th of the wheel of a tipper truck in front of me. I was so worried that water might cause some issue or the other. It has been more than 2000 KMS after that incident and everything is working fine, no glitches and no headaches.

15. Max has better BMS and charge management compared to Nexon EV. I had never seen the AC kicking in while fast charging to cool down the overheated batteries. (I did 20 fast charging sessions, some include just after a drive of 150 to 180 kms in around 35 to 38 degrees temperatures). Similarly never faced the Hot battery or Hot motor warnings trying to drive after all those fast charges in those situations.

16. So far the sales team, dealership, after sales service (during first service) have all been hassle free and in fact people were taking feedback and working on making themselves better. This was a nice touch as I had read so much negative things about the after sales service, I almost cancelled my booking at one time.

I will provide more updates here as I learn more about the vehicle. Couple more highway trips are brewing, so hopefully I can provide some insight on the reliability of charging infrastructure based on my experiences at a later stage.

[destinykid]

Originally Posted by rkmunjuluri

After almost 49 days into the ownership of EV max and clocking 4,198 KMS, I think I am in a decent position to provide some insights into owning an EV Max. Here are few things for the prospective Max buyers out there.


4. Ergonomics for the front seats are good, though lacking enough thigh support, you wont feel tired even after 3 to 4 hours of continuous driving.
.

This was quite a comprehensive real usage review. How about the performance of ventilated seats? Especially during the long drives. The Nexon EV I tried didn't have them.

[rkmunjuluri]

Originally Posted by destinykid

This was quite a comprehensive real usage review. How about the performance of ventilated seats? Especially during the long drives. The Nexon EV I tried didn't have them.

The AC felt sufficient in most cases during my drive. I think once or twice for may be around 40 to 100 kms, we tried ventilated seats and it was good. It does the job it meant to. You can start off with speed of 3 and then slowly reduce it to level 1 after some time.

[efgritesh]

Originally Posted by rkmunjuluri

Always add +2 hours for any long trip you plan, to the time shown by google maps, provided the distance is with in 550 KMS range. Anything beyond this and provided you do not have charging infrastructure where you are going to end up, add at least another 40 mins for 200 KMS increment. If the altitude differences are minimal then this will reduce to less than 1 hour and 30 mins respectively for 550kms and 200 KMS increments there after.

Thanks for details real world usage review! Did you tried something 400+KM in a day type? can you share some more details on what kind of max distance you were able to cover in a single day or something like that with real world exampls

I know I am asking for too much, but then I believe early adapters like you are going to be source of inspiration for people like us who are still not confident about it.

[rkmunjuluri]

Originally Posted by efgritesh

Thanks for details real world usage review! Did you tried something 400+KM in a day type?

In all I did a total of close to 3000 kms on highways. once it was 1100kms in less than 45 hours including night drive. Another time 1900 kms spread across 4 days. Day 1 around 680 kms, day 2 around 370 kms day 3 around 300kms and day 4 around 380 kms.

If possible, I will provide details about those trips here this weekend.

[AROO7]

Originally Posted by rkmunjuluri

6. I am not sure if it is only with this car design or its me, but the A pillar causes massive blind spot. Taking those U turns and right turns, you should be extra cautious.

Yes, the problem is with Nexon's thick A-pillars, and as you mentioned the problem magnifies multifold while taking a U-turn or right turns where you can miss a car like Alto at times. Plus in my case this really irritates me as the other cars I daily drive don't have this issue. That said, the issue is inherently there in the design of Nexon as I have extensively driven the first gen and the latest one and both have it.

Lastly, I would like to ask you two things, recently I took the test drive of the EV Max and my friend complained that he felt nauseous. Did you or any of your family members feel the same? The second is can you please share the cost of PPF on your Nexon?

[pradheepsr]

My likes and dislikes after 52 days and 1400 kms with the Nexon EV max.
My EV max is driven by myself and my 2 chauffeurs almost exclusively within city limits.
The only out of city trip was the trip after delivery from Madurai to Tirunelveli (155 kms) since I booked the car from Madurai.

Now for the Likes first:

1. Supremely comfortable and refined with absolute silence in the cabin. All you can hear is road and wind noise that too at speeds only above 80 kmph.

2. Suspension is perfectly tuned for our roads. You can easily drive over a broken road at 60 kmph and yet wont feel a thing. Absolutely no worries regarding ground clearence.

3. Steering perfectly suited for sedate and spirited driving and extremely comfortable and light during parking speeds, 3 point turns etc., My better half gave an instant approval for this after the TD since she found it feather light after having driven the likes of i20, polo

4. Seats are supportive with just the right cushioning at the front not so at the rear where you sit a bit knees up. I haven't had any complaints from my family members.

5. The rotary gear selector is a bit "Jaguar" ish but it's well made and very responsive albeit a few micro seconds lag between changes which all owners will get used to over time.

6. The regen levels are extremely helpful in getting the more out of your battery.
I found levels 1,2 are more than adequate for usage within city limits.

7. AC is perfect and works well for my climatic conditions where average temperatures hover between 30 -35 degrees even during monsoon and winter months. I found a setting of 20-22 degrees with fan blower speeds 1-2 is more than adequate to cool a fully occupied cabin effectively.

8. The Economy and "Go green" factor. I've hardly spent around 1600 INR ( 1 unit = 8 INR) for the Kms driven which equates roughly to about 1.2 INR per Km.
If you have solar you'll be literally be driving at Zero cost.

The dislikes now:

1. Poor quality checks and inconsistency in fit and finish. TAMO's tradition continues with the EV max too. I have identified at least 10 quality issues right from the date of delivery in the likes of boot needing repeated attempts to close, beading and roof liner coming off in some places, interior panel gaps etc., Hoping to get them rectified during 1st service.

2. Knees up seating position in rear seats. I felt it a bit uncomfortable over a long drives
but many in my family haven't had any complaints so far.

3. Paint finish is pathetic. My detailer pointed out at least 10 spots where he could see dust within paint and said that he's surprised on how a brand new car can have that.

4. If you are a spirited driver you'll drain your battery soon. City mode likely to give you 170 -190 Wh/Km whereas ECO mode returns around 150 - 160 Wh/Km. Sport mode is likely to give you thrills and oomph but will drain your battery quicker.

5. Slow charger at home takes an awfully long time of around 14 hours for a full charge.

6. Lack of charging infrastructure in my city. So I'm entirely dependent upon home charging now but will be an issue if going out of city.

7. Yet to experience TAMO's service as I'm due for my 1st service soon. But if other customer reviews are to be believed I might be in for some surprises.

8. Z connect app badly needs an update and is often found lacking in certain aspects.
It doesn't really to show the ODO reading nor does it update it from the car.
The energy efficiency shown by it is touch and go as it doesn't really correlate with the car and my driving style.

That's my little experience with the EV max now. Will post more updates after my 1st service soon.

[rkmunjuluri]

Originally Posted by AROO7

Lastly, I would like to ask you two things, recently I took the test drive of the EV Max and my friend complained that he felt nauseous. Did you or any of your family members feel the same? The second is can you please share the cost of PPF on your Nexon?

PPF was around 90K and I had got similar quotes from 3 different detailers in Bangalore. I did not bargain with anyone, as I am really bad at it. This definitely can come down is what I understand from few EV owners I met on highways during charging sessions.
In the backseat if you are seated in an upright position and not actually resting your backbone on the seat, then you will face this sensation. My wife experienced this when we did the TD for the first time. After that she never faced that issue, nor anyone complained of it later as all of them sat comfortably in the rear seat.

[lina]

What is the max charging speed you have got at a 50kW charger?

[rkmunjuluri]

Originally Posted by lina

What is the max charging speed you have got at a 50kW charger?

I saw 30KW briefly and current was around 83 amperes at max. consistently it used to be around 29 KW and 81 Amps in 30 KW, 50 KW and 60 KW DC fast chargers.

[damodar]

Originally Posted by rkmunjuluri

I did Bangalore (900 mts above sea level) to Ongole (9 mts from Sea level) twice due to family functions and the onward journey from Bangalore is very good as we are going down hill.

It would be interesting to know your charging log between Bangalore to Ongole and back. Did you face any issues during charging enroute?

[lina]

Originally Posted by rkmunjuluri

I saw 30KW briefly and current was around 83 amperes at max. consistently it used to be around 29 KW and 81 Amps in 30 KW, 50 KW and 60 KW DC fast chargers.

So from the looks of it, Tata never increased the charging speed. The additional current drawn is just a result of more cells drawing the same power as they used to earlier. Tata should have increased the charging speed before releasing the Max. Hopefully XUV400 gets released with a better charging speed.