Why my Tiago EV needs a battery pack change at just 11,000 km

My 10 year old i10 with CNG kit still has better shock absorption than Tiago EV.

BHPian Invictus13 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So, we have been driving the top variant since first week of April. We have driven close to 11k km now. The car was giving great mileage till the second service done at around 8500 km.

Below is my account of when the trouble began.

So before the second service was done, in an isolated incident, I was sitting in the car with the car turned on and parked with the ac on. I turned off the ac, and then the car. Within moments, I turned on the car again. The backlight for the buttons and the ac stopped working. I turned off the car, waited for 5 minutes and then when I started the car again, everything worked. Few days later, my dad was driving and the car started giving overheating error. He didn’t note down the exact error or take a picture, so I can’t say for sure what the exact error was. The same day we sent the car for the second service, as it was due anyway.

The service center informed us that they fixed the overheating issue, and sure enough, it was gone.

Now, before this second service, we were getting 200+ km with ac in Delhi summers. Wh/km was rarely ever above 120. Without a, it stayed below 100. After the service, the wh/km went up to an average of 140 and the range dropped. We informed this to the service center, and they insisted that it is purely based on driving habits. However, nothing had changed. Same people still drove the car in the same way that they did before.

We drove for another 2k km, with range not being the best, but with being more light footed, we were able to get close to 2 km in 1%, which is without ac and still lower than what it used to be.

A few days ago, I was driving back home and I was at around 150 km from 68% with Wh/km around 111. Then the battery started dropping rapidly, and at 166 km it was down to 16%. That’s 16 km in 16% battery. Then, limp mode activated at 16% and at 15%, the dreaded HV Critical Alert showed up. I would like to add that for 15-20 minutes, I tried using the heater(there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated button, but the temperature dial can go up to 30 degrees).

I restarted the car, and it was gone. But the limp mode continued, and at 15%, the HV Critical Alert was back

We gave the car to the service center, and initially they said there is nothing wrong with the car and we should collect it. We asked them to thoroughly check everything. A few hours later, on the same day, they called back saying the battery pack is faulty and will need to be replaced. They already placed the order for a new battery pack, which will take 15-20 days to arrive.

Since our car was in driving condition, they told us to collect it and ensure we don’t take it below 20%.

Now, one thing I would like to confirm with anyone else who faced this error is their usage of fast chargers(both AC and DC).

Before any of the issues came up, I took the car to Jim Corbett and Nainital from Delhi. A trip where I had to DC fast charge a good number of times, and AC fast charge once. With DC fast charging, I charged till 100% a few times.

The service center is telling us that we should never use fast charging more than 4 times without slow charging to 100% at least once in between.

I don’t know how accurate this information is, but is there a correlation between the two?

My other theory is the issue being with the AC somehow.

Anyway, I will update once the battery pack is changed.

P.S. Other niggles I want to mention include the really terrible shockers. My 10 year old i10 with CNG kit still has better shock absorption than Tiago EV. Also, I read other users report this before, but if you happen to pass a pothole while applying brakes, there seems to be a sudden acceleration and the car speeds up for a moment. This, I believe is dangerous. Also, hard braking seems to cause some sort of turbulence. I know it’s the ABS activating, but it’s just so bad and does not instill any confidence.

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