Tata Curvv EV - What's Good & Bad About This VFM Coupe | Faisal Khan

This is the Tata Punch.EV, oh wait, this is actually the Tata Nexon.EV, no not really, this is actually the Tata Curve.EV. Sorry for the confusion, but all the three cars look awfully similar from the front. I'm not really a fan of family designs, but here's how to identify this car as a Curve.EV and not as a Punch.EV or a Nexon.EV from the front end. It can't be the Nexon because it has the charging flap right here at the front which I can manually open and it will automatically shut because the car is on at the moment. Meanwhile in the Punch.EV, you press a button and it opens but because there have been glitches while it is opening and closing on its own which you can see right now, they decided to just make it manual but it has that electric function of also shutting on its own. The Nexon doesn't have this because it's on the old platform. So this is definitely not the Nexon because this is the Curve with the charging flap right here. But then, it's not even the Punch because it has the camera for the lane keep assist there and the Punch does not get ADAS. And from the side, you definitely know that this is a jacked up Tigor. Oh, just kidding. This is basically the Curve which is a SUV coupe, sloping roofline which kind of reminds you of the Tigor to a certain extent. But this is actually 316mm longer than the Nexon because the Nexon is sub 4m and this is slightly more than 4.3m in terms of length. But wait, what is the point of being 316mm longer than the Nexon EV when the wheelbase has increased just by 62mm when compared to the Nexon? Where did that 254mm vanish? Well, it seems that most of the added length has gone somewhere here to make this car what Tata Motors claims is an SUV coupe. But most of us are going to end up driving this car in the city and you need the best tyres for adventure in the urban jungle. Enter the Apollo Aptera Cross Tyres, class leading tyres for compact SUVs as these tyres offer the best in class mileage and durability. The Apollo Aptera Cross Tyres ensure that your car has a great balance of ride comfort, handling and braking performance. They also have a higher puncture resistance. Check the link in the description to know more. Coming back to the Curve, the most distinct aspect of this car is the rear end. It's ready for the booty call. What the hell happened to you man? Yes, yes, yes, yes, the design is actually quite striking but it is polarising. You love it or you hate it, there is no middle ground, like Cersei said. The thing is Tata Motors is late to this segment and they thought, we are entering this segment so late, let's do it with a bang. Let's do it with something very different and unique and that's when the SUV coupe was born. SUV with front wheel drive, what is that? Even this is almost identical to the Nexon. Tata Motors has also taken the opportunity to cut costs here. The Nexon gets a rear wiper washer which is hidden. This car also has a rear wiper washer which is more than hidden because it's completely missing here. Tata Motors thought that we don't need a rear wiper washer, we'll save some money here and just tell people that because this has a sloping roofline, water will automatically get pushed out. That's just lazy writing. But don't worry, I have your back. I have a very nice solution to the lack of a rear wiper here. Take your right hand, put it like this and swing it. Now this one is the most cost effective way of having a rear wiper. Oh, that is the rear washer. Another area of difference with the Nexon EV are the tyres. This car is running on big 18-inch wheels although the tyre size is the same, 215. However, the profile is lower. So 215, 55, 18 here. Meanwhile, the Nexon EV runs on 215, 60, 16s. And unlike the Nexon which gets conventional door handles, this car gets flush door handles for better aerodynamic efficiency. You just have to push them like this to open it and it also gets a light here. In fact, it gets a light on all the door handles. Another feature in the Curve EV which is missing in the Nexon EV is this 11.6-litre frunk storage. And guess what is this? Well, this feature is known as AVAS which stands for Acoustic Vehicle Alert System which basically warns the pedestrians till up to 20 kmph of speed. Maybe in the future, you can also use this speaker to play music and annoy everybody around you. Listen to it, okay? The sound is that which you hear in a spa. It feels like someone is giving me a nice relaxing massage without a happy... And this car also gets a new key which is different from the one on the Nexon. Yes, finally Tata Motors has given us a new key. And even the interior is identical to the Nexon, only three things are different here. First is the steering wheel. It does not come from the Nexon, instead it comes from the Harrier and Safari. The second different thing is the sunroof. It gets a bigger panoramic sunroof here instead of the single small chintu-mintu sunroof in the Nexon. And the third feature here is the gesture operated powered tailgate which is very slow yaar. It takes its own sweet time to open the tailgate. Which brings me to five annoying things I don't like about the Tata Curve.EV. Number one is the quality or rather the inconsistency of it. This is a brand new car. This DRL is working but this one is not. It's already conked off. And fingers of truth on the right side. Yes, this panel gap is wider than the left one. So inconsistency in terms of fit finish. And there are at least ten other places where I can show you the inconsistency in fit finish. So yes, quality should be a lot better when you are paying more than rupees 20 lakhs. I am not being a hater. I know DKL guys are going to be very upset. The second annoying thing is the position of the charging port. It is at the front. So in case of a front collision, this thing will get damaged which means two things. Firstly, it will be expensive to repair or replace. And secondly, you might not have access to the charging port which means that your car will get grounded. Absolutely nobody is putting the charging port dead in the front. People tend to put it on the side. So I don't know why Tata Motors is doing this experiment. The third annoying thing is this touch panel right here. It's not the best to use and at times you even don't know if you have touched a button or not. And then it also tends to have minor issues here and there wherein the air conditioning has a mind of its own. The fourth annoying thing is the minor cost cutting. Like the centre passenger does not get a head because there is no centre headrest in the rear. And there are just two parking sensors at the front and rear instead of having four each. And then there is the spare wheel of this car which is a 16-incher and it is a steel wheel. This car is running on 18-inch wheels. Why is it having a 16-inch spare? They do give you a tyre mobility kit though. And then there are the buttons for the seat ventilation which is just out of sight and not clearly visible in daylight. The steering wheel is surprisingly only adjustable for height. It is not adjustable for reach. And then there are the power window switches which are very dated. They come from the Indica Vista which is more than a decade old and it's only the driver side switch which gets illumination and one touch up and down function. The rest of the power window switches aren't that fortunate. The design of the centre console seems to be flawed too because there are no cup holders here in the centre console which is very baffling. But there are cup holders inside the glove box. Isn't that a very weird place to have a cup holder? I don't know how they even think of this. Every time you take the key out of the car, it becomes very horny. It starts ringing the horn time and again. But what I really like about Tata Motors is the consistency. So first, the left DRL wasn't working. To keep it symmetrical and consistent, now the right DRL isn't working either. Oh, that's real creative. And the fifth annoying thing is the rear seat. There isn't much space when compared to the Nexon. So what is the whole point of this car being longer? Because under-thigh support is really very poor. Headroom isn't that great for someone as tall as me because of the sloping roofline. There are no magazine holders here. The only respite is that the rear seat can actually be reclined by 3 degrees in 2 steps. Looks like the whole idea of Tata Motors increasing the length of this car wasn't to improve the rear seat space but was to give it a bigger boot. Fortunately though, there are a lot of things to like about this car. Here are 5 of them. First is the boot. At 500 litres, it is 150 litres bigger than the Nexon and is also bigger than the Kia Seltos as well as the Hyundai Creta which are obviously the top sellers in this segment. By the way, you can fold down the rear seats to increase the boot carrying capacity to a massive 973 litres. The second thing you like about this car is the performance. It is fast. In fact, the battery pack is so big here that it can even do vehicle-to-vehicle charging and vehicle-to-load for all the variants. Isn't that amazing? Your car is now a power bank. That's because this car obviously isn't electric which means it gets instant torque and it has the biggest battery of any Tata car currently. In fact, it has the biggest battery in the whole segment itself although it is not the most powerful car in the segment. Now I'll obviously detail all these aspects when I'm going to drive this car later on in the video. So stay tuned for left foot on the brake, right foot on the accelerator because this is how it accelerates. The third thing you will really like about the Curve is the ride and handling balance. This car is dynamically rich. In spite of running on 18-inch wheels which are obviously massive this car still has a good ride quality. And the handling is decent too. So yes, it is decent amount of fun around the corner. And this car has also got all-wheel disc because of which this is how it stops. Not very sure-footed, huh? ABS seems to be too intrusive. The fourth thing to really like about this car are the features. It is loaded and how? Some of the highlight features include a 10.25-inch instrument cluster which is obviously all digital and you can see a lot of information here. Then there is the big 12.3-inch infotainment system which has a lot of information. It also has the RKIT.EV app wherein you can even play games. Oh God, there is no ADAS here. And there are ton of other apps available too which is nice. It has a 360-degree parking camera which actually has a very good resolution. Electric parking brake, auto hold function, three drive modes. Sports drive mode, activated. Economy drive mode, activated. City drive mode, activated. Wireless charging pad, auto-dimming inside rear-view mirror, 6-way power driver's seat, ventilated front seats, panoramic sunroof which also gets mood lighting. Yeah, the mood lighting is available on the dashboard as well as around the sunroof area. It also gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both of which are actually wireless. A 9-speaker JBL sound system with JBL modes as well. Tyre pressure monitoring system, steering mounted controls both for the audio as well as for the ADAS features. It also gets leather seats which is not that eco-friendly for an electric car. Fast charging USB-C ports both at the front as well as the rear and then there are the lights which have multiple functions. It has the welcome animation as well as the goodbye animation both at the front as well as the rear. It gets sequential indicators and the massive light bar at the front which people call as a tube light for Korean cars that also functions as a charging indicator. Isn't that very nice? One feature which is very unique to Tata cars is express cooling. Express cooling is on. It turns on the AC at full blast and it even rolls down the driver's side power window to make sure that hot air just escapes the car. Isn't that awesome? By the way, Tata Motors has also updated the Aira connected car app wherein you can also see the best suits and also the recommended charging stops. In terms of safety, this car gets ADAS level 2 with a ton of features but my personal favourite is the blind view monitor whenever you give an indicator. By the way, this car also gets 6 airbags as standard. There are also 35 storage spaces inside this car. Some interesting storage spaces include umbrella holders in the front doors and a massive glove box which has got 2 shelves, a pen holder, cup holder, I don't know why they are there and it even has an Easter egg right here. Another weird storage space is right here. There are actually 2 of these in the boot so you can hide your drugs. Stop saying that. I mean paracetamol guys, not weed. And the fifth thing you will really like about the Tata Curve.EV is the pricing. It starts at Rs. 18.57 lakhs and goes all the way to Rs. 23.28 lakhs. All the prices are on road Mumbai. There are 5 trims across 7 variants and the reason for the attractive pricing is firstly, it's introductory and secondly, it shares a lot of parts with other Tata cars. In fact, the interior is an exact replica of the Nexon. Heck, even the seats are identical here. Alright, it's time to start driving, something which all of you have been waiting for. There it turns on, all these animations telling me that blind spot alert is active, air conditioning is on. Hey Tata! She doesn't listen to me. Hello Tata. Turn off air conditioning. Say a command. Turn off air conditioning. Say a command. Turn off air conditioning lady. Sorry, I'm unable to process your command. Hello Tata. Turn off air conditioning. Sure, air conditioner has been turned off. When it works, it works well. When it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Basically, that's how it works. And we are actually going to come into... What was I trying to do? I was trying to turn on Apple Maps. But I don't know if... One second, CarPlay should be active. Why is it not active? Apple CarPlay. There we are. Yes, bro. I am the one. Yes, I want to connect. Come on, do it, do it, do it. Do it, do it, do it, do it. It's connected. I think I need to unlock... No, there it is. So, where is the Maps? Yeah, there it is. And we are actually going to change the mode here as well. I am going to come into the map view. Because that's something which is beautifully done by Tata Motors here. So, straight away. Okay. There we are. And I come into sport mode. Somehow, Apple CarPlay is way better than Google Maps. In terms of at least the aesthetics of things. Although, it is obviously taking me in the wrong place. Into first gear. No, into drive actually. Handbrake is down. Left foot on the brake. Right foot on the accelerator. We are ready to go right now. Alright. And... Here we go. Oh my God! Acceleration is quite brisk. Okay, you don't have to tell me where I have to go. That is the problem. These people interfere in my life. Around the corners, actually, it is very impressive. Somehow... Yeah, the horn is a fingerprint magnet. You see the fingerprints which are coming again. Shut up! Okay, just end route and get lost. Don't disturb me ever again. I am not interested. Okay. We are just going to come out of this menu. Because unnecessarily, she is disturbing me. So, I am going to come into the home menu. Yeah, there is nothing much to see here as such. I wish we could have put some menu here or there. Yeah. Is there a way of seeing the way the energy is consumed in this car? The energy monitor into EV mode here. Come on. Oh, smart lamp. What do I do with smart lamp? I want EV mode. Discharging mode. Let's see what it shows. Okay. It will show you how fast it is discharging. And off we go. So, performance is obviously very brisk. But I am finding a big problem in terms of seeing at the rear. Because the window there is so small. Rear windscreen size is really small. And the horn is not that sensitive. They have actually addressed an issue here. But it's not very aligned. And then, because it's a fingerprint magnet, I always keep a cloth handy. So that I can keep cleaning it whenever I feel like. Now, oh my god, wheel spin. You can't turn off traction control, I think. But it does wheel spin. Because this has a lot of power. It has the biggest battery in the segment. But it is not the most powerful car in the segment. In fact, it doesn't even have the most torque in the segment. Because the MJZSEV is the most powerful car in the segment. Meanwhile, the ZSEV has 280Nm of torque. Even, oh, lane departure warning is coming there. Even the XUV400 has 280Nm of torque. But less power when compared to this car. This is the 55, which means the 55kWh battery pack. It has 167hp and 250Nm of torque. 250Nm of torque is exactly the same as the Nexon EV. But it is more powerful when compared to the Nexon EV. Because, obviously, this is their most powerful electric car at the moment. Till the Tata Sierra comes into the picture. And the Sierra, obviously, will have a lot more grunt. Because they will have an even bigger battery there. So, the Nexon.EV comes with two battery packs. 30kWh and 40.5kWh. Here, the base one is 45kWh. And this one is the top end, the bigger battery pack. Which is 55kWh. And because this is the bigger battery, ground clearance is lower by 4mm. 186mm here. Meanwhile, the 45kWh battery pack is having a ground clearance of 190mm. Tata Motors has achieved 50-50 weight distribution here. Which is not that difficult when you have the battery pack in the wheelbase. And this is the Arcade platform. Not the Arcade platform. Is it Arcade? I don't know. That's Arcade.EV. This is an active platform, which is ACTI.EV. Instead of VE, they did EV. Me being the grammar Nazi that I am, I'm not very happy with them playing with words here and there. No, no, no, no, no. That doesn't please me. Performance is actually very good. But doesn't have the sound or the feel. And it does tend to understeer. Although the handling is actually good. Steering is also decent here. Ride is also quite impressive somehow. In spite of the big wheels. So, there are certain things you will definitely like. The way this car drives. And it actually drives like a bigger car. Look at that. Really is. Yeah, it drives like a bigger car. Purely because it does feel big because of the big wheels, obviously. So, let's quickly talk about the numbers. 167 horsepower and 215Nm of torque here. 0-100kmph in 8.6 seconds for this car. Which is decently quick if you ask me. And the top speed I think is limited to 160kmph. With EVs, that is a bit of a concern. My dinner is roaming on the road. Please move aside. Let me go. Coming to the 45kWh battery pack. That has 150 horsepower and 250Nm of torque. It goes from 0-100kmph in 9 seconds. And I think has a top speed of 160kmph. The claimed range here is 585km. Which is a lot. But in the real world, expect somewhere between 400-450km. In fact, when I turned on the car in the morning with almost 100% battery, it was showing me 440km range. So, obviously, the range varies depending on which mode you are driving. You turn on the AC, range depletes. You get into the sportier drive mode, range depletes. So, there is Eco, there is City and there is Sport. Obviously, Sport gives you the best performance. Eco is tired and City is like the midway right there. Obviously, you get the instant surge and the traction control light blinking all the time. The steering does have weight here. Car feels very sure-footed to drive. It's not very fun because of the lack of sound. But as EVs go, this is actually quite impressive. And it has prismatic cells. They have made changes to the battery and all those things. Because of which, I mean, they have also made changes to the way it charges. Because of which, obviously, it charges faster. It can charge up to a speed of 70kW. Which is amazing. Which means, it can go from 10-80% in just 40 minutes. Which is quick enough. And making a quick overtake is not a problem at all. Yeah, AIDA system is always so proactive here somehow. Which is natural. 2% battery already depleted right now. Which will definitely happen now if I give it the beans. So, in terms of performance, being an EV, obviously, it is fantastic. It feels fast. It is obviously very silent. It's very refined. You do hear a bit of the tyre noise because of the massive tyres on this car. But ride quality is good. Handling is good. High-speed stability is also good. Braking performance is good. Some of the brakes are more natural here. So, they have done a very good job. And we have got regenerative braking. There are four modes. You can turn it off by continuing to click this paddle on the left. On the right, you can go up to level 3 wherein the car will slow down dramatically to a point where it will start driving at around 9 kilometers per hour. Okay, let's keep going. It doesn't come to a halt. So, there is no one pedal driving here or what? I don't think so. In terms of charging time, well, this car comes with a 7.2 kilowatt charger. And that is the AC charger which will juice up the battery in around 7-8 hours depending on which battery pack you have. Whether you have the 45 or the 55, I would recommend you get the 55. Big battery pack. Bigger than even the MG ZS EV. And the ZS EV actually costs a lot more when compared to this car. So, yeah, starter motor is offering a lot of value here. But the ZS EV is obviously more powerful here. And then I think we are in a city area. There is a lot of traffic here and there. But easy to maneuver this car. Steering does have some heft to it. It's not like super light that you can turn it like this like as if you are making a dosa. No, that is not possible. You have to put in some effort to drive this car. Ergonomics are decent. But firstly, I find the dashboard to be huge. And the mirrors to be similar to other Tata cars which is fine. But the steering is a bit on the higher side here. Which is natural, I believe, with Tata cars. In terms of ground clearance, like I told you, 190mm is good. But the Nexon actually has more ground clearance. And the water weighting capacity of 450mm is decent. But then this is a front wheel drive. It's a front motor. Single motor setup. The motor is at the front. They should have given it a bigger frunk. 11.6 litres doesn't do it for me at all. Okay, my bad. I told you that the 45 has a 160kmph top speed. No, it has 150kmph top speed. So, Tata Motors is restricting stuff so that people don't opt for the lower battery pack. Because obviously, you pay more, you get more. Naturally. Now, the main rival is obviously the ZS EV. Which is bigger in all the dimensions. Yeah, it's bigger in every dimension when compared to this car. But it is a lot more expensive. But this has the biggest battery pack in the segment. Because of which, it has the best range as well. In fact, the 45 has a claimed range of 502km. In the real world, you would expect somewhere around 340-350km. Don't get the 45. Get the 55. Because the 45 is not available in the top end variant, I think. The top trim. Meanwhile, the 55 is not available in the base variant. Which is something like a smart move. Because when you have more power, then why would you want to restrict yourself to fewer features. In terms of charging time, this car can add up to 150km of range in just 15 minutes. With a 70kW DC fast charger, obviously. And using the 7.2kW AC charger, which is available with this car. It will charge in 7.9 hours for the 55 and 6.5 hours for the 45. Meanwhile, if you use the regular 15A socket at home, that's like 20 hours plus. It is so embarrassing to even tell you the time that I don't even remember it. But that's something with every possible electric car. Because obviously, that's a very smallish charger. Left or right? Where do we go? Let's go left. We go left to always be right. Okay, so... The thing is that... There is this sound and whine which comes from the motor. Yeah, this sound and whine definitely comes from the motor when you accelerate. So that's a typical motor whine. So it's not very smooth in that regard. And for Tata Motors right now, EV is like the centre point. And that's the reason they are focusing a lot on EV. So EV has come first and then there will obviously be the petrol. I mean there will be two turbo petrol engines. There will be the diesel as well with a dual clutch automatic gearbox. 117hp, 260Nm for the diesel obviously. Meanwhile, the petrol is going to be 120hp, 170Nm for the current petrol. And the new direct injection petrol, that one is going to have 125PS of power. Only 5PS increase and 225Nm of torque. So definitely that is something to look forward to. But just get the diesel because the diesel is a diesel. It's a freaking diesel. And the best part about the internal combustion engine cars is that... There is no AdBlue required for the diesel. They have managed to make something or do something which is really nice and innovative from Tata Motors. That you don't have to put AdBlue which is something which is unique obviously. But they still have the provision there to make a hole and put the AdBlue socket and tank. Because in the future when we go BS7, maybe that one will be required there. And of the warranty, this car comes with a 3 years 1.25 lakh km warranty for the vehicle. Meanwhile, the warranty for the battery is obviously 8 years, 1.6 lakh km. Excuse me, how can I cross you? I think I'll have to turn around to do that. Animals ain't moving for anybody. That is something you would definitely expect right now. But as I see it, Tata Motors has taken a big risk here. Because this car definitely is unique. But remember one thing, they have actually gone ahead and got a car which may please everybody or may not. It's a little polarizing. So I don't know if people are ready to opt for such a design. Because this car is competing with really strong players in the segment. That makes me actually do the brake test. Not very sure footed brakes. Because of the weight and off we go. That's 0-99 kmph. We didn't reach 100 because of the animals coming ahead. So I just had to lift off the accelerator. And with regen, well I can just lift off the accelerator and not apply the brakes at all. I don't need to do it because the car will automatically slow down very nicely. And then it will start cruising at approximately 8-9 kmph. Okay, now it's slowing down further. It's come to 7 kmph. Maybe the brakes are a little bit more aggressive here. So we're just going to come to a halt. And off we go. Lot of wheel spin. Too much wheel spin and oh my god, more wheel spin. Because traction control light is continuously blinking. You cannot turn off traction control. And there we reach 100 and it started to rain all of a sudden. So guys, this is my video of the Tata Curve. I hope you liked the format of this video. If you did, please leave a like here. Let me know in the comments what you think about this car. And don't forget to check out Apollo Tyres because they make amazing tyres for cars like this. And obviously, let me know what should I do with the Curve petrol-diesel which I'm going to be driving soon because they are the same car essentially. I'll have to make some different content. Otherwise, you won't be happy. Bye-bye.