If the price of the battery of the Tata Nexon electric vehicle (EV) is Rs 7 lakh (Rs 700,000), is this not enough to drain an e-car owner’s pockets in case the battery lets him down?
An owner of a Tata Nexon, who drove 68,000 km in two years of ownership, saw that his battery stopped functioning after the charge fell to 15 per cent and this comes even as Tata Motors gave car buffs yet another option with the roll out of the Nexon Prime.
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| Tata Nexon electric vehicle. |
Owner of the Nexon Doddapadda Nisty posted the battery issue on a Facebook group.
After the battery was replaced for free (as it was under warranty), the owner said that the car feels as good as new. Tata Motors offers eight years or 1.6 lakh km (160,000 km) of warranty on its Nexon EV battery pack.
By travelling 68,000 km in two years, the owner had covered around 3,000 km per month on an average. The distance travelled is on the higher side compared to what an average car owner would cover. But still, it was covered by the warranty.
Had the Nexon owner crossed the warranty period, he would have had to shell out Rs 7 lakh. So, even as an EV is considered to be a zero-maintenance vehicle, car owners can sometimes get these rude shocks.
But if someone buys a battery, say, maybe five years later, the price may halve, that is Rs 3.5 lakh (Rs 350,000), which is still substantial.
EV owners would have to budget for this cost (which perhaps they may not have realised), after owning an electric car, for say, seven-eight years.
Tata Nexon EV Prime launched
Tata Nexon Standard EV has been rechristened and launched as the Nexon Prime with some added features.
The Prime version comes with a litany of new features that were only available with the higher variant Nexon EV Max. The Prime variant is priced from Rs 15 lakh (Rs 15,00,000) to Rs 17.5 lakh (Rs 17,50,000).
One of the key additions is the multi-mode regen function with automatic brake lamp activation, which switches on the brake lights when the regenation is active.
The Nexon Prime EV is also given a four-level regenerative braking like the Max. Here, Level 0 cuts off regeneration, while it is strongest at Level 3.
This comes handy when a driver wants to recharge the batteries on the go, particularly in heavy traffic or while going downhill. This basically raises the effective driving range.
Other additions are an indirect tyre pressure monitoring system via the smartphone app, cruise control as well as smartwatch-integrated connectivity features.
These new features will come as standard on the Nexon Prime EV. However, Tata Motors also plans to launch these new features for all existing Nexon EV customers from this month itself through a software update that is free of cost.
Additional controls and switchgear for regenerative braking and cruise control on the current Nexon EVs will be added at the authorised service centres.
But the fitting and additional hardware could come at a cost. Also, Nexon electric vehicle customers would have to pay for any future software upgrades.
Mechanically, the Nexon Prime would be identical to the Standard electric vehicle.
Conclusion
So, even as Tata Motors rolls out the Nexon Prime, the maintenance cost of an EV may appear to be zero but keep in mind that if a battery is to be replaced, especially after the warranty period, it could cost a bomb!
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