Tata Nexon EV: When Features and Comfort Come Together

Since its inception in 2017, this homegrown vehicle has achieved a massive cult in the Indian automobile market. I personally feel that it's because of this vehicle that Indian patrons care about crash test ratings, nowadays. The Tata Nexon disrupted its segment by providing premium-car-like build quality and features.

The Nexon was India's first sub-4m vehicle to secure an impressive 5-star safety rating in the Global NCAP crash test. This resulted in Indian automobile manufacturers talking and taking safety and crash test ratings more seriously.

Though there’s no debate about the quality of safety features in this car, unfortunately, I cannot say the same about its design. Some say they'd rather close their eyes than look at it, while others believe they have never seen a better-looking car. Yes, it has that polarizing design!

Keeping personal design preferences aside, I can say, “This car is a perfect package of technology, comfort, and engineering with a few little compromises.”

Build and Design

Just like its Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) siblings, the Nexon EV is built on Tata's tried and tested "X1 Platform."

To achieve this 5-star rated, rock-solid build quality, Tata has put in over 25 years of work to improve its X1 platform since Tata Indica was launched way back in 1998. And weirdly enough, Tata Indica and Nexon share the same platform.

Exterior

The Nexon EV looks modern with its sharp edges, a slightly floating roof, and a few new aerodynamic design elements such as air curtains at the front, hidden rear wipers, and new alloy wheels. And because of all these changes It manages to improve its range by an impressive 2 percent with the same old battery size as its predecessor.

The Nexon EV features LED headlamps, connected front LED DRLs, connected LED tail lamps, and dynamic swipe indicators to give it a more premium look than any other car in this segment.

Interior

Welcoming the driver is the new two-spoke flat-bottom steering wheel with an illuminated Tata logo and control panels for volume, phone, cruise control, etc. Right behind the steering wheel is a 10.25” screen handling the instrumentation duties. Tata calls it the digital cockpit. You can change the complete look and feel of this screen with the steering-mounted controls. You’ll also find 2 paddle shifters right behind the steering wheel to control regenerative braking.

There is also a 12.3-inch infotainment screen with a 9-speaker JBL surround sound system.

It has the Arcade.ev app store, which has a long list of built-in apps such as JioSaavn, Amazon Prime, Gaana, Disney+Hotstar, etc.

Nexon EV owners can download any 15 of these applications to use with a wifi connection while charging the EV or in the parking. You didn't think Tata would let you watch OTT while driving, did you?

This 12.3-inch screen is exclusive to the top-end variant, and it also gets wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Lower variants get a 10.25-inch infotainment screen with most of the features mentioned above, except the 9-speaker JBL sound system. It comes with 3 driving modes: ECO, CITY, and SPORT.

Regenerative Braking

Tata has given the Nexon EV 4 levels of regenerative braking (0,1,2,3); 0 is the lowest and 3 is the highest level of regen.

Here’s a short explanation if you don’t understand how regenerative braking works here is a short explanation: When you lift your foot from the accelerator pedal, it propels the motor of your EV in the opposite direction, which slows down the vehicle without using the brakes. And while doing all this, your EV gains a little bit of charge as well.

Comfort and Convenience

The Nexon EV has some of the most comfortable seats in its segment. In my opinion, they are even better than what some of the cars in the higher segment have. It has leather upholstery, a cooled glovebox, automatic climate control AC, ventilated seats, and well-tuned suspension to make your ride comfortable.

Noteworthy Features

The Nexon EV’s DRLs and backlights have a welcome and goodbye feature. The DRL also works as a cool-looking charging indicator.

The Nexon EV gets USB type-C ports with 45-watt fast charging in both the front and rear rows.

Safety

We all know the Nexon is the pioneer of safe cars in India. As I mentioned earlier, it has a 5-star Global NCAP rating. Safety features like 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, ESP, TCS, after-impact braking, SOS, hill ascent control, hill descent control, auto-hold, all-disc brakes, and front parking sensors, are all available here to make your journey safe.

Motor, Battery & Performance

This new Nexon EV gets a new Gen-2 motor with a power output of 104.6KW or 142.6HP for long-range variants and 95KW or 127.3HP for medium-range variants, with a common torque output of 215Nm for all variants. The battery and motor are IP67 water and dust-resistant, and the battery pack gets liquid cooling as well to work efficiently in summer. The long-range variant, goes 0 to 100 kmph in only 8.9 seconds, which is crazy fast. The medium-range variant takes 9.2 seconds for 0 to 100 kmph. 

The claimed range is 465 km for long-range variants, which have a 40.5kWh battery capacity, and medium-range variants get a range of 325 km from the 30kWh battery.

Charging Options

There are 3 charging options available:

• 7.2kW AC home charger, which is included with long-range variants. It charges the long-range battery from 10% to 100% in 6 hours and the medium-range battery from 10% to 100% in 4.3 hours.

• Medium-range variants get a 3.3kW AC home charger, which will charge the medium-range battery from 10% to 100% in 10.5 hrs and the long-range in 15 hrs.

• DC fast chargers can charge both long and medium-range batteries from 10% -80% in only 56 mins.

There are 9 variants of the Nexon EV on offer. You can pick yours according to your needs and budget.

Warranty

The battery and motor get an 8-year or 160,000 km warranty (whichever comes first). 

The vehicle warranty is 3 years or 125,000 km (whichever comes first).

Conclusion

The biggest plus point for the Nexon EV is that it has no tough rivals. Even after the recent update, the Mahindra XUV 400 looks outdated from the outside.

Other EVs like the MG ZS and Hyundai Kona are much more expensive than the Nexon, and that’s the main reason why the Nexon EV makes so much sense for someone with a budget of around 20 lac rupees.

Yes, there are a few negatives, such as poor fit and finish, and slightly inferior paint quality, but not all the cars have these issues. Exceptions are everywhere, right? 

Tata has sold more than 1 lakh EVs in India and has gained a 71% share in the 4-wheeler EV market. This indicates that buyers are showing trust, despite a few negatives, which we believe Tata will take seriously and rectify soon.