Tata Tiago EV Road Test

What you are looking at here is the most affordable electric vehicle you can buy right now. It is the Tiago EV from Tata Motors, of course, and you may have read our review when we drove it late last year. This time around, we put it through our extensive road test regime and in the process, discovered its everyday attributes of all kinds, including its real-world range from 100 to zero per cent. So let’s see how it fared.

The Tiago EV is based on the standard Tiago, and the latter is not exactly a fresh design. Now despite its age, the Tiago looks fresh and up to date. It’s a well-balanced design that has clearly aged well. The front looks good with a flat but wide grille and sweptback headlamps that are large but not overtly so. This electric version gets standout bits like tri-arrow-shaped inserts, EV badging, blue accents below the grille and fog light housing, a new air dam, and LED DRLs. All in all, it’s a simple design that is classy without being overstated.

In terms of appearance, the Tiago EV’s cabin isn’t too different from the petrol-powered model. The only major differences come in the form of a gear selector dial instead of a lever, an EV-centric instrument cluster, a couple of buttons on the centre console for the regenerative braking levels, and a charging port. What’s worth adding is that the cabin’s design has been the same since the Tiago was introduced back in 2016. So a major revamp would have definitely worked in favour of this electric version. That said, the leatherette upholstery looks good and has a nice fit.

The Tiago EV has adequately sized front seats with a squab big enough for most occupants. The backrest, though, is a touch narrower than expected, and hence, we felt there was some lateral support missing. Moving to the second row, it’s always tricky when it comes to rear seat comfort in EVs based on ICE architecture. This is mainly because the raised floor accommodates the battery pack within the wheelbase. Thankfully, the floor height hasn’t changed drastically over the petrol Tiago, meaning one isn’t forced to sit with their knees up.

Also, the Tiago EV is fairly good for headroom and shoulder room, so having three people at the back over short journeys isn’t a big ask. Besides having a comfortable rear seat, the Tiago scores well when it comes to that all-important airy feeling, thanks to the bright upholstery and a large glasshouse. The leatherette upholstery, again, makes it feel plush, but the absence of an adjustable headrest is a bit of a bummer. There are no seat back pockets or a folding armrest at the back either, but the door pockets are large enough for a one-litre bottle.

The Tiago EV’s boot space is rated at 240-litres, which is close to the standard car’s capacity. Unlike the standard Tiago, there is no spare wheel hindering the usability simply because there is no spare wheel here. Instead, you get a puncture repair kit.

The entry-level XE variant is offered in a medium range configuration which gets a 19.2kWh battery pack. What we have here is the top-spec XZ+ Tech Lux with the 7.2 kW AC Fast Charger variant. It comes with a bigger battery pack and a faster charger. In terms of features, you get LED DRLs with projector headlamps, a rear wiper with a washer, cruise control, rain-sensing wipers, automatic headlamps, a cooled glove box, a height-adjustable driver seat, a reverse parking camera, leatherette upholstery, and an electric tailgate release. Weirdly enough, this variant doesn’t come with parking sensors. Lastly, the Tiago EV promises high levels of safety. It’s based on the Tiago’s four-star NCAP-rated architecture and comes with dual front airbags, ABS with EBD, and auto battery cut-off on impact.

The model tested here comes with a 24kWh battery pack, powering a 55kW motor which is close to 74bhp. In terms of pulling power, it makes 114Nm of torque. So the power figures you get in the Tiago EV match that of the petrol model. Ultimately, this means that the Tiago EV delivers a driving experience that is familiar and close to any petrol-powered, mid-size hatchback. Performance is strong from the get-go, especially in the S mode.

The surge in acceleration is strong, and as long as you are doing city speeds, the Tiago EV remains extremely peppy. So what’s the performance like with a full load? Well, for most of the part, the performance isn’t too far off, and in S mode, you won’t feel much of a difference in acceleration. In fact, we tested it with one person and again with four people onboard to see the difference in performance. The Tiago EV did zero to 60kmph in 5.63 seconds with one person and 6.70 seconds with four people. Naturally, there was a bigger difference at highway speeds – zero to 100kmph was dispatched in 13.28 seconds with one person, whereas it took 16.14 seconds with four people.

The Tiago EV’s ride quality is yet another strong positive. It’s fairly absorbent, with a nice, supple feel over poorly paved roads. More importantly, in any electric vehicle, the suspension is quiet and does a good job of isolating the occupants by rounding off sharp-edged potholes. At highway speeds, the ride is mostly flat with little vertical movements, and it has that all-important big car feel overall. The brakes are strong, with a good feel at the pedal. Now in this EV, you get regenerative braking which helps restore a small percentage of the charge. There are three levels for intensity, although the regen doesn’t kick in until the battery has dropped below 90 per cent. So you will not feel it working till then. And when it’s functional, it is effective but isn’t as aggressive as the Nexon EV in the sense that we couldn’t do one-pedal driving even on level three. So it is a little lacking in that case, but if you don’t want it to be too intrusive, then it’s great.

The claimed range for the long-range Tiago EV is 315km, but that’s not the reality in any way. In fact, we have done a range test on every other electric vehicle that Tata makes, and we have managed to cover around 70 per cent of their claimed range every single time. By that calculation, you would guess the Tiago EV would realistically cover around 220km, right? Let’s find out. After charging up the Tiago EV to 100 per cent, we reset the trip meter and drove it across our predefined route till the battery was completely drained. So when we started the test, the indicated range that we got was 266km with AC and 296km without AC.

We did the test with the AC on all the time, under ideal conditions, with moderate to heavy city traffic, and some amount of highway driving as well. All said and done, it took us over nine hours to complete the range test, and in that time, the Tiago EV covered exactly 213.9km before it was completely dead. We had full power and AC up until 10 per cent of charge, after which the top speed was reduced to around 52kmph, the build-up in speed was noticeably mellow, and the AC was automatically shut off with only the fan working. All of this is, of course, to maximise whatever is left of the range, and to get you to the nearest charging point. In fact, we covered the last 23km using that 10 per cent charge, so if you think about it, it can be a lifesaver.

The Tiago EV can be had in four primary variants – XE, XT, XZ Plus, and XZ Plus Lux. The entry-level XE variant can be had as a medium-range vehicle only, which means you get a smaller 19.2kWh battery pack with 250km of claimed range. It’s priced at Rs. 8.69 lakh, ex-showroom, but if you want the most capable version with all the features and increased range, then you should be looking at the top-end variant that we have here. The latter is priced at Rs. 11.99 lakh, ex-showroom.

The Tata Tiago EV infuses electric mobility and affordability in a new light. For an entry-level EV, it feels quite mature and polished, and like the petrol-powered model, it’s got that big car feel – something that’s difficult to achieve in the hatchback segment. It’s not perfect though – the cabin is dated by today’s standards, and the real-world range could be higher. The latter would certainly appeal to a lot more people who are looking to transition from a petrol/diesel vehicle to their first electric vehicle.

Pictures by Kapil Angane and Kaustubh Gandhi