Tatas are planning to introduce a completely awesome electric car in the market. This car will be loaded with a lot of goodies and a special feature to communicate with the traffic signals ahead of the car to speed up or slow down traffic depending upon the number of cars on that particular road.

Tata Tiago-Seating

This is one car people will be proud to own! Post 2016 Indians will be proud of the vehicles Tata makes like Hexa, Nexon etc are all on par with other international car makers.

Tata’s had tested the electric motor…  on a 2014 design vehicle called Bolt. They had done this by replacing the Petrol engine with the electric motor and batteries, yet were able to come up with great figures. They had also done such a smooth fit and finish that people will believe the car was made ground up as a electric vehicle.

4 days after our blog… TMEC agrees its not long until Tiago EV hits the market. PlugInCaroo has always been spot on. Now lets see how far we are off the target price 🙂

Tiago – Dashboard

Within a few months the EV system was transferred to the Tiago platform. The Tiago is the latest design line of the Tata’s  2016  and derived from the Tata Kite project. It was supposed to be named Zica but had to be renamed after the outbreak of the Zika virus.

Tiago-glovebox

Tiago EV has bigger bootspace of 242 ltrs than Bolt’s 210 ltrs. It has Power windows, power steering, central locking, cooled glove box, higher ground clearance of 170mm than Bolt’s 165. 100kms range and 135kms top speed… the list is truly endless.

Tiago-connectivity

It even has Harman music system with bluetooth, USB and aux mated to 8 speakers. The five-inch screen has reverse parking display, SMS display and readout, step-by-step navigation for Android phones and Juke-car app. With this app its possible to connect multiple smartphones to the music system at the same time. There is even JukeCar app that has been built only for Tata vehicles. The touchscreen system will be there and this will even get reverse parking camera.

Cooled Glove Box

Tiago is also connected to traffic signal called GLOSA (Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory). Through this technology, the car is connected to the traffic light system. It has been designed to reduce waiting times, as well as minimize emissions caused by the engine functions associated with stopping at a red light, and maximize fuel efficiency.

Tiago – Cup holders

We at PlugInCaroo predict the car to be priced around 8 Lakhs. Those who have been testing the car have been completely bowled over… not only by the beauty of the car but also by its performance.

The fact that Tata’s were able to generate such good range and top speed with a car which was not built specifically for EVs suggests that they can easily improve the performance by building a lighter body. This is a huge advantage compared to Mahindra. Tata Tiago EV is a car that could well make the E2O obsolete!

Tiago-Bottle space

It also proves that Tata’s can switch any of their vehicles to electric with ease.

Does it mean that the Tatas have built some kind of conversion kit that can be used to convert ALL cars like Alto, Nano and Swift to electric? If Tata’s have such a kit then it would  mean big business because it would be cheaper to convert than to buy a new car and there are lakhs of such vehicles on the roads.

EVs would have caught the fancy of the people early on but the major problem of an EV in India is the very large size of the country, the tendency to use the car for weekend family getaways and the lack of inter-city and inter-state charging stations. The inability of any EVs in India to have a big boot to carry more luggage or to go inter-state or even inter-city has been a big mental block for many car buyers.

Tiago-Bootspace

Once intercity & interstate charging stations are operational… people will find it sensible to switch to electric vehicles.