Government officials who have been using the electric Tigor and eVerito have stated that both cars have a real-world driving range of 80 – 82km on a single charge in urban driving conditions.
As a part of a Central Government initiative, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – a public sector unit under the ministry of power – was directed to procure 10,000 electric vehicles for various government departments. Tata Motors and Mahindra bagged contracts for the government to provide electric versions of the Tata Tigor and Mahindra Verito. Initial delays owing to the lack of charging infrastructure did slow down the course of events. But now, after having used these electric vehicles on a daily basis, Senior Government officials, according to the Mint have not been impressed by the real world driving range of these cars.
The officials who have been using the Tigor EV and Mahindra eVerito have now reportedly refused to use these electric cars further owing to poor performance and a realistic driving range of just 80 – 82km within urban environs. To put things in perspective, both cars generate around 40 horsepower and have 17kW battery packs. The Tata Tigor EV has a claimed driving range of 100 to 120 km, while the Mahindra eVerito has a claimed range of 110km.
As per Tata and Mahindra’s contracts with the EESL, both the companies are to supply 10,000 units in total to the government. In the first phase of the initiative, however, they were to deliver only 350 units and 150 units of the Tigor EV and Mahindra eVerito, respectively.
As of now, the EESL has confirmed that there are a total of 150 of these EVs in New Delhi and Andhra Pradesh.
'Since it is a new technology, we wanted to gain confidence on our products before delivering it to our clients. We will be deploying about 200 – 250 electric vehicles by mid-July,' an EESL spokesperson said. However, the conditions of the second tender are being re-evaluated based on the current scenario.
It has also been reported that Mahindra has taken things into consideration and is developing a new electric vehicle system that will have better real-world driving range.
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