This is an ownership blog on the Tata Nexon EV electric car. This will give an idea for people who are interested to know how the car is performing in the real world.
Special thanks to Mr Samir Ponkshe from Miraj, MH state. He is a proud owner of Nexon EV electric car, who has offered to share details of his electric car as he uses it for the benefit of the EV community.
Mr Samir got his delivery of the Tata Nexon EV on a Saturday morning. PluginIndia team comprising of Atul and Kamlesh visited Samir at the dealership to check out the car.
Mr Amit another owner of Nexon who got delivery in March, was also present.
Here are some photos from delivery day!
But as Samir lives in Miraj, he will get it done at his home on his own.
Also the charging cable to be used for home charging is better tested before heading out.
Samir stays at Miraj but got delivery of his car in Pune. He had to drive all the way to Miraj some 250 km away. So he had to drive his Nexon EV home.
The issue is that Nexon EV is expected to give 200-210 km range at highway speeds. So Samir planned to drive the Nexon as much as he could and then tow it home.
He sent an image of his dashboard. At 16% SOC he drove 186 km with AC on and at highway speeds 65-75 kmph.
So from this we can assume that the Nexon EV will give you around 200 to 210 km on highway. And with more practise, Samir can do more.
Tata Motors is offering a simple Legrand wall mounted box for every Nexon EV customer.
The Legrand box seems to have an MCB, RCCB for protection. But there is no built in meter, so Samir installed his own meter box. Very nice work.
Samir also sent us some more photos of the range estimation by Nexon EV at 100% SOC (State of Charge). Consider this at 100% SOC it’s showing 168 km, which seems very low.
But then as he drives the estimation of range remaining increases to 217 km. Again this is different to our e2o.
And after a few days and some efficient drives, the range estimation on full charge now shows 250 km at 100% SOC.
We spoke to Tata Motors and they said that estimated range is calculated based on earlier driving patterns and loads on vehicles. If earlier driving patterns are very aggressive then it will show less and auto correct it when you start driving.
The range estimation seems intelligent the Mahindra e2o’s DTE (distance to empty) calculator.
The e2o’s DTE algorithm was pre programmed to start off with a certain value based on SOC minus the degradation value also calculated over every 100 charge cycles and show an estimated DTE and then try and correct it as the car runs.
The Nexon seems to have an advanced algorithm and it seems to factor in previous drives and makes adjustments dynamically. Very interesting.
Samir did a lot of driving today. The drive included city some outside city(about 30 km) with speeds up to 80kph. Full time AC and radio on. About 10 km driven by friend for trial.
Went upto 7% SOC and found that the AC compressor switches off at 10% speed limited to 50 kmph.
Also at 10% you get a message. Charging System. Battery Low! Need to charge!
One interesting observation is that below 10%, the car does not show range remaining. It just says "RECHARGE"!
Next morning the Nexon is fully charged. It was at 7% SOC last night and meter reading was 51 kWh and now at 100%, the meter reading is 78 kWh.
So the Nexon EV consumed 27 units to charge from 7% to 100%.
Also we observed the massive rubber gasket for water proofing the charge box.
Pleasantly surprised to see the charger rated at IP67, so u can charge in rain without issues.
We drove to hill top this morning - Dandoba Hills, which is near Miraj. A fun drive and steep ghats are not a problem. Very easy and comfortable to drive an electric car.
Also the quietness of the electric drivetrain in such quiet natural places show how much fun it is to drive an electric car.
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Here are screenshots of the Nexon EV mobile app. Samir thought he would share some functionalities of the mobile app.
There are couple of features which are interesting.
- Drive statistics and ride score. We would have preferred to see the efficiency in wh/km too in this screen.
- The diagnostics of the car is pretty cool. Battery status is nice to see.
- Geofencing is another interesting feature
- We can also see charge points around your location.
Samir got his green number plate on his Nexon EV. Green number plates showcases that the vehicle is an electric. There are no benefits now, but the government might make tolls free.
Then we will start seeing value.
The Nexon EV looks great with the green plate!
Samir got his smart watch/band from Tata which helps in keyless authentication.
Just wear the watch, approach your Nexon EV and tap on the button near the handle and when authenticated, the door opens.
Samir has tested without the watch and the door does not open!
Also the watch came pre activated. Samir had to do no setup steps!
Its a nice little accessory that will get the tech crowd enthusiastic.
Today i did a non stop drive from Miraj to Pune without charging. And i could just make it to the Aundh, Pune DC Fast charger with 2% remaining!
The drive was without AC and i have also shared the trip data. The DC Fast charging session at Aundh took 1 hour 15 mins.
Many owners were getting 160-180 km per charge. After this update many are getting 240-250 km per charge. I had no such range issues, but i was happy to be on the latest software update.
The following software modules were updated
- The VCU update
- ECU update
- Update for HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning). This has played a major part in increasing the range.
- BMS software update
So this was a fun drive from Pune to Lonavala. I did a total of 153 km and 35% SOC was remaining as you can see in below images.
The Nexon EV is fun to drive and you enjoy driving in scenic locations like Lonavala.
Once the software was updated and i was happy with my test ride to Lonavala, i decided to head back to Miraj this time without charging!
In this trip 95% of time time AC was used. So without AC, we should be able to go 280 km.
All in all i'm extremely happy with the softweare update. The car seems more efficient and also the SOC and DTE algorithms are more accurate.
Owning a software driven Nexon EV is a joy and i'm enjoying it 200%!
Here is the data for those who are interested.
Captions are provided for each image.
So our Tata Nexon EV completes 25,000 km. All this driving is without using single drop of oil or causing any local pollution.
Having a 10 kW solar setup makes this virtually free to use :)
Once again we thank Samir for sharing his experience with the EV community. If you have any questions for Samir, do comment below.
The Nexon EV ownership blog will be updated every time Samir finds interesting things!
So stay tuned!