Why I was impressed by Mahindra XUV400 after driving it only for 2 km

I have driven other EVs too but this is the first electric vehicle whose brakes felt just right.

BHPian Dr.AD recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Today I got a chance to do a short test drive (about 2km, on city roads) of the XUV400. And I came out quite impressed.

The car is very nice! I could not test the performance in such a short drive, but whenever I tried to accelerate on finding empty stretches, the car responded very well. We were four people in the car. Even then, the acceleration and the power felt more than adequate. Overall the driving experience was good.

The ride quality was nice too. The suspension felt quite mature and well-tuned. Of course, this TD was very short, but still, the initial impression was very positive on all fronts.

Interestingly, this was the first EV I drove where the brakes felt just right! For example, I have driven Jaguar IPace, and there, the brakes felt a bit funny. But not in this XUV400. Here, in the normal "D" mode, the brakes were just right. There is another driving mode with heavy regen and the equivalent of engine braking, and that felt very artificial and weird. I would never use that mode if I were to drive this car. But the normal D mode felt just right to me.

The interiors are well-designed and well-packaged. The driver seat was quite comfortable, and the driving position was nice. The switchgear quality felt good. Overall I liked this car a lot.

Of course, from such a short drive, I can not comment on things like range or how this car would be to live with, but nevertheless, I liked this car. During this test drive, I was telling my wife (who was one of the passengers in this car) that this is the future! By this, I did not mean this specific car, but electric cars in general. I was telling her that right now the EV charging infrastructure is still poor, and in 5 years it will be good enough that we can actually do a long drive in an EV without range anxiety. And in that sense, this would be the future!

And oh yes, as expected from an EV, the car was very silent and smooth! Overall, great job Mahindra! A nice little car in a well-designed package!

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