Tata Harrier EV Driven To Death: Will It Hit 500 km?

For most people, their manager being unavailable means that they can also work from home, but for me, it meant that I had to take his place, sitting in the Tata Harrier EV AWD for a full day, trying to see how far it would go on a single charge. At around 9 AM, my boss Tushar and I headed out of our office in Pune to drive the Harrier EV out of charge, which was at 98%.

With 383 km of indicated range from a 75kWh battery pack, we headed towards Lavasa. The AC was set to 23 degrees, the drive mode was Eco, and we changed the regen settings based on the driving conditions. While Lavasa did look beautiful due to the monsoon, our attention was grabbed more by the occasional kids who had their heads popped out of sunroofs.

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By the time we finished our conversation about bad parenting, we had reached Lavasa hilltop. It was 1:14 PM, we had covered a distance of 48.6 km, the charge had dropped to 81 percent, and the indicated range was at 322 km. While driving in the city and in the ghats, we were maintaining speeds between 40 and 60 kmph. Since it was an uphill climb for the most part, the motors had to work hard, which led to a depletion of 17 percent.

As we started to head back towards Baner to get onto the expressway, we lost less charge due to regenerative braking. Our downhill drive didn’t take much out of the battery, but the drive from the start of the expressway to Ambey Valley definitely made an impact.

From 81 percent straight to 54, we had a displayed range of 238 km left when we reached the Ambey valley air strip. By this point, we had covered 176 km, and it was already lunchtime. We stopped to get some food in Lonavala, heard a lot of gossip from the next table, refreshed our minds and bodies, and headed towards Mumbai.

This is where I took the wheel. Another hour to Mumbai, the indicated range was at 208km, and on the expressway we maintained speeds between 95 to 100 kmph. We took a U-turn as soon as we entered Mumbai at around 3:30 PM, and by the time we reached Pune, the charge left was 13 percent. On our way back from Mumbai, we noticed that once the charge reaches 25 percent, Sports mode becomes inaccessible. However, even in Eco mode, the car has enough power to make quick overtakes.

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Since we still had 13 percent left, we could not go back to the office. We spent the next hour just driving the Harrier EV around to drain the battery, but unlike our body and mind, it kept on going. At 10 percent, the speed got limited to 80 kmph and at 5 percent, it stopped displaying the indicated range. The air conditioning, however, was unaffected till 3 percent.

At around 400 km, we started to head towards the office to a charging station. The AC was barely working, but the monsoon weather kept us from sweating too much. Exhausted and cranky, we reached the charging station at 6:24 PM and plugged the car in at 1 percent. The Harrier EV covered 412.2 km from 98 to 1 percent.

If considered from 100 to 0, it can do somewhere between 418-420 km in a single charge in the same conditions. The rear-wheel-drive version, which is lighter and has just one motor, will be able to do more. Did it meet our expectations? Not quite. From a battery pack this big, we were hoping to see a range of around 450km or more, which should be possible with the rear-wheel drive version. The Mahindra BE6 and XEV 9e, which have slightly larger battery packs, were able to cross the 500 km mark.

Nonetheless, the 400-odd km of real-world range it offers is enough for long journeys. If there are enough fast charging stations on your route, you can easily do interstate drives without a hassle.

Stats

AC Temp: 23 degrees Celsius

Speed Inside City Ghats: 40 to 60 kmph

Speed On Highway: 95 to 100 kmph

Total Drive Time: 8 hours 20 minutes

Average Speed: 49.48 kmph

Total Distance Covered: 412.2 km