Tata Motors will unveil its first electric SUV, the Tata Nexon EV, on 19 December.
The company has issued videos regularly over the past month showing the car completing general testing procedures such as the torture track, gradability test, water wading test, climate chamber, robotic steering, lane change, skid pad and acceleration & brake testing at its plant in Pune. The promotions started on Youtube with Milind Soman and Ankita Konwar driving the Nexon EV to Leh to validate its all-terrain and all-weather capabilities.
The Nexon electric will become the first Tata product to come with connected car features. To put it simply, a connected car is one that has an internet connection that can provide internet access and share information with its users via the in-car display and their smartphone. The MG Hector and the Hyundai Venue are the SUVs from 2019 that launched with this functionality.
Tata says the Nexon electric vehicle will have “30+ connected features, including location-based services, vehicle health monitoring, alerts, safety, security and much more.”
The Tata Nexon Electric will debut ‘Ziptron,’ the name Tata Motors has fashioned for its next-generation electric powertrain that comes with regenerative braking. The permanent magnet AC motor will draw juice from an IP67-rated liquid-cooled battery with fast-charging capability that is dust- and water-proof. The targeted range is 300 km on a single charge. Tata has tested the battery for 1 million kilometres and provides 8 years of warranty. The company has installed 85 chargers in 13 cities at the moment which is serving the Tata Tigor EV customers and the Nexon can be charged through any 15-ampere socket that is common in households.
Tata Motors has already announced that the Nexon electric would be priced between INR 15 lakh to 17 lakh (as compared to INR 9.6 lakh of the top-spec Nexon petrol), giving it a dim outlook on sales volume. If anything, the Nexon is the first step of an Indian car company to introduce a long-range EV and the costs would have to be south of INR 10 lakh for a sub-4m car to have any meaningful contribution to the business.
The Nexon EV has no direct competitors, but in the second half of 2021, Mahindra has announced the introduction of the EV variant of the XUV300 (codename: Mahindra S210) which has comparable dimensions and features.