Questions on Nexon EV’s accessory fitment, flood water scenario, servicing answered

In a discussion with our friends over at MotorOctane’s Instagram.com account, Mr Anand Kulkarni, Vehicle Line Director, Product Line Electric Vehicle Business (Passenger Cars) at Tata Motors answered questions regarding the Nexon EV (and Tata electric vehicles in general). During the interaction viewers asked him about the thinking of customers who are opting for EVs, what happens in the event of flooding if an electric car is left parked, the servicing of the Tata Nexon EV and about aftermarket accessories.

On the major reason for a customer buying an EV:

The kind of people we look at who are interested in the EV are people who are aware, people who have travelled and seen EVs in other markets. But also a lot of these people are conscious about their environment, keen on doing something for the environment and this is their way of trying to make sure their carbon footprint is minimum as possible.

A lot these people are also looking at the refinement levels EVs will provide, which cannot be given by any other car. The kind of smoothness of the drive or the linearity of the drive, the quietness and the refinement is something that you can’t beat. It takes you a couple of days to get used to it but I promise you that once you get used to it, it would be difficult to switch back to a standard IC engine.

The Nexon EV is IP67 rated, which means that the batteries are fine if the car is underwater for 30 minutes. But what happens to the batteries in a flood situation?

First of all, when we say IP67 there is timing and also a level of water. An IP67 is when you have submergence of 1 metre and that’s the head of water that stands on it. Please note that it’s 1 metre over the battery, so it’s probably over the roof of the car. Your car is completely submerged and then it can withstand for half an hour. Now assuming it’s a flood-like situation and you have to go away for two or three days until the water recedes, there are internal protection circuits within the batteries which make sure you do not have short circuits within the batteries even if, let’s say, water were to leak inside. There are fail-safe mechanisms, so this is not going to be a situation where if you stand next to a car, you will experience a shock. There are protection circuits inside.

Is there any difference in servicing an electric vehicle compared to an IC engine car?

Yes, it is because you do not need frequent oil changes, you do not need filter change, you do not need a timing setting adjustment or those kinds of things. Otherwise, the wear rate on electric cars for various components tends to be pretty much lower. So between service intervals, amount of wearable or consumables as we call it that you change in service are also going to be far fewer. Your quick service check to the dealer or to the workshop is to be only about making sure that all your software is proper and there are absolutely no other problems in terms of mechanical fitments and other things and that’s it.

Is it possible to fit aftermarket accessories in Nexon EV?

It depends on what kind of accessories you want to fit. We would recommend not to tamper or tinker with the electrical systems ideally because that’s the last thing that you would want to do. By the way, the car comes equipped with a host of features most of them which are very interesting to a lot of people and we think we have taken care within the versions to make sure that most of the choices that people would want to accessorize are already available. We wouldn’t recommend going after aftermarket fitments, which interfere with the wiring circuits of the car. Alloy wheels, seats – those kinds of things you can always do but avoid getting into any electrical circuitry.