It has been five months of non-stop fun motoring with the Tata Tiago EV and the more I drive it, the more I am convinced that this is one of the best city cars you can buy. The Tiago EV is just the right size for city driving. It’s compact and easy to park. And its spacious on the inside for four adults to be seated in comfort. Compared to its direct rival, the Tiago EV has two extra doors and a large boot space, making it quite the practical EV runabout.
Practicality bit aside, it is quite the fun hatch too. There is ample performance on offer. The beauty of an EV is the easily accessible torque that makes it very easy to overtake other vehicles in city traffic. The Tiago EV can easily reach speeds of upto 80kmph which is enough for city use. It can also handle the occasional highway runs and travelling at triple-digit speeds. I think Tata should make an EV hot hatch with the Tiago EV. More power, stiffened springs, a cosmetic kit. That would be fun no?
Another impressive aspect is the battery regen. Battery regeneration is a useful feature to improve range by converting what essentially is engine braking into battery charge. The other benefit is it feels like engine braking lending the motor the feeling of driving an ICE vehicle. The Tiago EV gets three levels of battery regen with the most extreme level being very close to single-pedal driving. This means battery regen is strong enough to bring the vehicle to a halt without using the brakes so you end up using just the accelerator. You can even switch off battery regen completely if you want to.
In present times, EVs are way more economical to run than ICE vehicles and the Tiago EV is a fantastic example. Running it in the city is more affordable than running a 200cc motorcycle. The Tiago EV supports DC fast charging too. I usually use a 15amp charger to charge the EV which takes around nine hours to fully charge. With a fast charger, charging from 10-80 percent takes less than an hour! That’s enough time for a coffee date.
One of the few grouses I have with the Tiago EV is the unnecessarily complicated charging. Once charging is done, the charger won’t detach from the car’s charging port unless you unlock the car, sit inside and effectively start the car. Why can’t simply unlocking the car suffice? Then there is the drive selector which isn’t tactile and it’s quite easy to mis-shift or shift into the wrong drive when you are in a hurry. Tata could have rectified it in their new Acti.ev platform a.k.a the Punch.ev but missed out on that. But you never know, it could be part of the next update.
Speaking of updates, I hope the next-generation Tiago EV will use the Punch.ev’s Acti.ev platform. I did drive Tata’s smallest electric SUV offering and came away bloody impressed. Fingers crossed, the next-generation Tiago.ev becomes a reality.
Garage Update
Total: 9,546km | Previous: 9,328 | This Month: 218km | Fuel: NA | Mileage: NA
Pros: Quite the practical EV, DC charging is a boon
Cons: Charging port unplug mechanism could be simpler
