Tata Curvv EV Review: 3 Reasons To Buy And 3 Reasons To Avoid

The Curvv EV was first to arrive before its ICE derivative, marking Tata’s entry into the C-SUV segment. Now, the competition has gotten fierce as the formidable Hyundai Creta is also available as an EV. But before we bring both the Curvv EV and Creta EV together for a head-to-head, we thought it would be a good opportunity to take a look at three things we liked about the Tata Curvv EV and three things that could have been better. 

Reasons to buy:

1. Tata’s Perfect C-SUV

Tata took its sweet time to enter the cut-throat C-SUV segment. And they couldn’t have done it better than the Curvv - or more specifically, the Curvv EV. Firstly, this segment has over seven competitors, well-established ones. And when you are entering an already crowded space, you need to bring in something unique to grab the attention right off the bat. The Curvv did that with its coupe-SUV styling. 

Also Read: Tata Curvv EV Coupe-SUV Review: Curve Ball

But it's not just about styling, the Curvv nameplate brings you a complete product. And the EV is backed by years of expertise and benchmarking. The quality of materials used inside the cabin feels luxurious and premium. The boot is large at 5 litres. And despite being a coupe SUV, the second-row space isn’t half bad. We will come around the second-row space in a bit. But this one is also feature-loaded. 

2. Features Galore

And that brings us to the second positive of the Curvv EV - it is quite feature-loaded. This fully loaded trim has everything you need and some more. I really like how the widescreen is placed, it has a decent interface. It's not boring, nor too simple, nor is it very complicated. It controls most of the functions. You still get a phygital panel lower down for controls, which i am not a fan of. 

Also Read: Tata Curvv, Curvv EV Dark Edition Launched In India

Range-topping trim aside, right from the base variant, the Curvv EV is a pretty well-loaded car when it comes to features. So if very fancy features don’t fancy you, the Accomplished trim makes for a great buy. Firstly, you get a choice of battery packs, whichever suits your need - 45 or 55kWh - and even if you choose the bigger battery pack with the additional sunroof pack, you still are under the Rs 20 lakh mark, which makes it a very good value-for-money. The range-topping Empowered trim does get you many feel-good features, but it has a premium of a couple of lakhs. 

3. Driving and Range

Now there are a few aces up the sleeve of the Curvv EV when it comes to driving dynamics.  First up, it has got a great ride quality, which alone is the reason enough to get yourself this over any other electric SUV. In fact, when driving the Curvv EV, I was once on one of the flyovers carrying a good highway speed. But this flyover right on top had no roads, just craters and craters that would shame the surface of the moon. But the Curvv just went over it, and all I could hear was once,e just once, the suspension flexing. And that’s all, it crossed over unfazed. 

Also Read: Tata Curvv EV, Nexon EV, Punch EV, Tiago EV Offered With Benefits Up To Rs 1.71 Lakh

And then there’s the output of close to 170bhp and over 2Nm. That allows a 0-100 kmph time of around 8 seconds, and that’s quick by any standard, let alone the C-SUV segment. But overall, the driving dynamics are well sorted. It's comfortable for everyday use. Not intimidating to newer drivers. And delivers a good punch no matter what speed you are doing. 

But more importantly, the range. Let me give you a perspective first. The Long Range Nexon EV with the 45 kWh battery under our testing cycle went 370 km. The 45 kWh is also available with the Curvv EV as a matter of fact. The standard Nexon EV is good enough for around 300 km of realistic range, and that’s good enough for most buyers, as the Nexon EV sales suggest. Now the Curvv 55 kWh has a claimed range of 502 km. But, Tata themselves know that this is an exaggerated figure and in the C75, that’s what Tata claims 75 per cent of the owners will achieve in realistic conditions, its claimed figure hovers between 4-425 km.

Now on display, the DTE when we started at 1 per cent showed me 350 odd kilometres. But through the test, the DTE+Trip always gave me a 400+ km. In fact, the figure always hovered between 400- 420kms of figure. But once the battery was down to 25 per cent, the DTE took a hit. As a matter of fact, if you calculate the average consumption, it displays around 135Wh/km. That calculated with the 55 kWh battery pack is 404 km. So in our opinion, a realistic range of 400 km is good enough at this price point. 

Also Read: Tata Curvv EV: Variants Explained

Reasons to avoid

1. Design Mistake

I would like to begin by pointing out a very silly mistake on Tata’s end. You see, the Curvv EV concept was first showcased in April of 2022. We should have gotten the Curvv later that year. But instead, Tata used the unique and rather very stylish design language that you see here on all the cars they had in the line-up. First, the Nexon EV and ICE versions were followed by Harrier and Safari facelifts, and then even the smaller Punch EV got a similar Russian Doll styling. Sure, this is a good-looking design that looks like Robocop, and is from the future. But it eventually made this rather very special-looking Curvv a lot less special when it finally turned up a year late,r when everyone was familiar with this modern design. 

2. Not so great Ergonomics

For the second reason, we come back to the cabin. Now, as i mentioned earlier, this is a very feature-loaded cabin. It feels premium, too, and the design is also modern and not too bad. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement here. For example, despite being a born EV, this doesn’t feel like one. It still feels like the Nexon EV, which is great for the Nexon EV buyers, but not so much for the Curvv EV buyers, as they are practically getting the same cabin feel and experience.  

Not only does it take the good things from the Nexon, but also the bad ones. For example, there are still no cup holders in the centre console. The USB ports are placed in a recess that’s hard to reach. The seats need a longer backrest height as this one offers no support for the shoulder blades, and it starts to get uncomfortable after some time. 

At the back, getting inside isn’t graceful either. And once inside, the space is a tight fit owing to the coupe-like design. More importantly, the Curvv is bigger than the Nexon, so i expected the space or at least the sense of space, should be better than the Nexon. But that’s not the case. Secondly, i have seen coupe-SUVS still offer better space at the back.

3. EV infrastructure and Competition

Lastly, the Curvv EV is, after all, an EV. So the third reason to look elsewhere is the fact that the charging infrastructure in India still hasn’t developed as well as it should have by now. Which is why buyers are still reluctant to test the water in the EV space. Luckily, there’s a choice here of the petrol as well as the diesel if you want the Curvv for all its merits. 

However, despite being modern and less than a year old, the Curvv EV has some serious competition. Firstly, the Mahindra pair, both of which look and feel space-age ahead. And the other competition comes in the form of the Creta EV. There’s also the Elevate EV that we are promised this year. So, the Curvv EV’s first mover advantage has been lost somewhere in the competition already. 

Conclusion

And that, ladies and gentlemen, are all the good things and not-so-good things about the Curvv EV. Now it's design, it's a missed opportunity, yet it still looks good. It is a good entry into the C-SUV segment from Tata, and it is available in both ICE as well as EV derivatives. So even if you have a shortcoming of the EV factor, you can still go ahead with the ICE derivative. It also has a spacious boot space, is very feature-loaded on the inside, and it's not bad to drive either. The ride quality is something to write home about. And a realistic range of 400 kilometres is a decent figure, if you really want a mid-size SUV for your daily commutes, for your office commutes, for dropping kids to school, and overall, the first EV in your family. More importantly, it is also well-priced.