Electric Cars Reviews

A Tesla Inc owner has filed a lawsuit against the electric vehicle maker, claiming the company limited the battery range of older vehicles via a software update to avoid a costly recall to fix what plaintiffs allege are defective batteries.

Audi revealed its all-electric SUV, the e-Tron recently in India and the model has now received a new entry-level variant for the international markets. Dubbed as the Audi e-Tron 50 Quattro, the base version is the lighter and more affordable iteration of the SUV that will sport a more accessible price too. This has been made possible largely due to the use of a smaller battery, compared to the one used on the range-topping e-Tron 55 variant, which helps weight savings of around 120 kg over the latter's 2565 kg kerb weight. The 71 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that limits the range to 300 km on a single charge in the WLTP test cycle.

The FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme came as reassurance for electric carmakers and reaffirmed that EVs are at the top of the government's agenda. Furthermore, Niti Aayog's proposal to impose a ban on combustion engine powered commuter motorcycles (below 150cc) and then the budget council moderating GST rates on EVs and promising certain incentive, built up on the plan and prompted carmakers like Hyundai and Audi to foray into the Indian EV space. However, we were still waiting for some news from established Indian EV makers. Finally, the pioneer in the Indian EV market- Mahindra has decided to play catch up and will launch its EVs which we already knew, were in the pipeline.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Administration sent Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk a cease-and-desist letter last year regarding Model 3 safety claims and subpoenaed the carmaker for information on several crashes, according to documents posted by a nonprofit advocacy group.

The California based carmaker in a tweet has confirmed reintroducing the unlimited free charging scheme on the Model S and Model X. At present, Tesla owners in the US need to pay $ 0.28 (28 cents) per kWh or $ 0.13 (13 cents) to $ 0.26 (26 cents) per minute for using a supercharger. This means a full charge on a Tesla Model S through a supercharger would cost $ 19.5 which is over Rs. 1300 in Indian currency. The free charging service is available to Model S and Model X owners only and Model 3 owners will need to pay for the service.

Keeping up with the central government's policies to switch to electric mobility, the Indian army has employed electric vehicles as part of its fleet. In partnership with Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a Joint Venture of Central PSUs under Ministry of Power, the Indian Army will be using the EVs for the use of its officials in New Delhi with a total of 10 electric cars to be operated as part of the pilot project. The army will develop further on the initiative and increase the number of EVs in Delhi to in a bid to improve efficiency and minimise emissions.

Tata Motors will be introducing a more powerful version of the Tata Tigor EV for private buyers this year. Currently, the car uses a 16.2 kWh battery, offering a range of 142 km on a single charge, but Tata is working on a more powerful version, which is expected to offer a maximum range of 200 km on a full charge. As of now, the Tata Tigor EV is only sold to fleet owners, and government organisations as part of the EESL tender, but with the introduction of long-range Tigor EV, Tata will start selling the car to private buyers as well.

Tata Motors will be introducing its next electric vehicle for the Indian market by the end of the financial year 2019-20. The carmaker recently announced its partnership with Tata Power to set up 300 fast chargers across 5 metros in India. Speaking to carandbike.com on the sidelines, Shailesh Chandra, President Electric Mobility Business & Corporate Strategy, Tata Motors, said that the company is currently working on electric vehicles focused towards private buyers, and will introduce a higher range Tigor EV a new model by end of this fiscal year.