Tata Nexon EV review: the electric SUV that stopped being an experiment

The interesting thing about living with a Nexon EV for seven weeks is how uninteresting it becomes. That is a compliment, and it is the exact quality that has kept most Indian buyers away from electric cars: they are looking for a car, not a hobby. This one is a car. What follows is what the last 2,340 km actually told us.

The city, which is where the argument is

The motor makes 141 bhp and 215 Nm, and all of that torque is available before the car has moved. In traffic the effect is out of proportion to the numbers: the Nexon EV leaves a petrol SUV at a signal without ever sounding like it is trying, and it is quiet enough at 30 km/h that pedestrians notice it late, which is a genuine criticism of the product rather than of the buyers. Regenerative braking is set with three modes through the drive selector, and in the strongest setting a commuter learns to drive much of Delhi on one pedal. We finished a 41 km round trip to office with the brake pedal touched perhaps twenty times.

The 1,549 kg kerb weight is present but well managed. The car changes direction with the slightly boaty, isolated feel of a heavy front end, and the 215/60 R17 tyres are chosen for rolling resistance rather than for grip. Nobody will call it agile. Everybody will call it effortless, which is what a family SUV in this money is for.

Highway: a comfortable 100, and then a negotiation

At a GPS-confirmed 100 km/h the Nexon EV is hushed — the absence of engine noise exposes wind around the door mirrors and tyre roar over coarse chip seal, both of which are better-controlled than in the petrol car. Overtaking is not a problem up to about 110 km/h; you move out, dial in throttle, and the gap closes while you still have room to abort.

Above that the single-speed transmission runs the motor toward its ceiling and the pull flattens. A 120 km/h cruise is possible, and the speedometer will even say 140, but it costs roughly a third of the range and the car stops feeling willing. This is not a defect; it is the shape of every electric powertrain in the world. It matters here because India’s highway buyers do not shop with a consumption curve.

Nobody complains about an electric car in the city. They complain about the second hour of the highway.

Refinement, or the noise there is not

NVH is this car’s most underrated attribute, and it is worth separating two kinds of quiet. The absence of powertrain vibration means the cabin at idle is silent in a way no petrol hatchback at ₹13 lakh can match — no shudder through the pedal, no tachometer flutter at a signal. What remains is structure-borne noise, and Tata has damped it better than they had any right to at this price. The one intruder is the whine of the reduction gear under hard acceleration, audible only when you are provoking it.

Range: 489 claimed, 322 earned

Tata’s IDC figure is 489 km. Our week-by-week numbers with the air conditioning running: 322 km over a mix of city and expressway, 255 km on a 340 km motorway day at 90-100 km/h, and a best of 361 km on a mostly-city week with regenerative braking used properly. From 46.08 kWh, that is a consumption band of roughly 130-180 Wh/km, and it means the car is genuinely a two-day-per-charge commuter for someone covering 60 km a day.

DC charging took the battery from 12 to 80 per cent in 63 minutes on a 30 kW charger in our test, against Tata’s quoted 60 minutes. On a home socket it is an overnight car, and there is no way to make that sound romantic. If you park on the street, buy the petrol Nexon instead.

Cabin and equipment

The 12.3-inch touchscreen is the centrepiece and, on the higher trims, so is the connected-car app — pre-conditioning the cabin before you get in is not a gimmick in a 45-degree summer; it is how you keep the battery within its comfort zone and the range loss small. Ventilated seats, fitted on the Accomplished and above, are the feature we would fight for if you were deciding between the ₹12.49 lakh Smart and the ₹14.49 lakh Accomplished. Storage is decent and the 350-litre boot is usable, if the load lip sits higher than the petrol car’s because of the battery underneath.

The negatives are small but real. The front seat bolsters are soft enough that after two hours you are sliding toward the centre console. The switchgear is shared with the petrol Nexon, which means several buttons relate to things this car does not have. And the reverse camera’s guidance graphics are calibrated oddly, always showing more clearance than exists.

Safety: the least ambiguous part of the review

Five-star Global NCAP adult rating, six airbags, electronic stability control and tyre-pressure monitoring. In this price band, that is the strongest safety case on sale in India, and it is the reason the Nexon EV is easy to recommend to a family that has asked for “the safest thing we can afford”. Tata’s warranty and battery-cover terms are the second-order safety feature here: the pack is the component every buyer worries about, and the paperwork answers that worry better than any road test can.

What it costs to run

At our home tariff, the Nexon EV cost ₹0.85 per kilometre in electricity over the test period, against roughly ₹5.60 for the equivalent petrol Nexon in the same traffic. Servicing is cheaper and less frequent — no oil, no filters, no clutch — and the brake fluid and cabin filter dominate the schedule. Tyres are the hidden cost: the low-rolling-resistance compounds wear faster than owners expect on Indian roads, and a set of four 17-inch rubbers is a real line item.

Who should buy this, and who should walk

Buy it if you have covered parking with a socket, if your daily driving is under 120 km, and if you keep cars for four years or more. The Accomplished at ₹14.49 lakh is the sweet spot; the ₹15.99 lakh top trim adds sunroof and premium audio that will not change your ownership experience.

Look elsewhere if you drive long distances on unplanned days, if you live in a flat without charging, or if your household genuinely needs the range for one trip a month. For those buyers the answer is a petrol SUV, or a hybrid if the choice exists in your budget — not an electric car with a charging app open on your phone at a highway rest stop.