Harsh Arya, a businessman based in Faridabad, has covered over 1,03,000 km in his Tata Nexon EV Prime with 30kWh battery capacity since buying it in November 2022. Three years and a six-figure odometer reading later, he shared a frank, no-punches-pulled account of what long-term, high-mileage EV ownership actually looks like, the savings, the breakdowns, and everything in between.
Purchase Experience
Harsh bought the Nexon EV Prime with 30kWh battery capacity on 26 November 2022, and the decision came down to one factor above all: running cost. Coming off a diesel car, the arithmetic was hard to ignore, and it's held up over three years and a lakh kilometres of use.
Range, Charging and the Faridabad-Panipat Run
This is where Harsh's review gets pointed. He rates real-world range just 1 out of 10, and his complaint is specific: the car may display 200 km of range, but he says it realistically delivers closer to 80 km. "Range anxiety" is a phrase he uses more than once, and it came to a head on a 156 km run from Faridabad to Panipat via the KMP Expressway, where he had to actively manage the trip around it.
He's blunt about why: most owners, in his experience, simply aren't taught how to balance charging habits, driving speed, and overall efficiency, or how the battery and BMS (battery management system) actually communicate and behave under load. Home charging is slow, taking 8 to 10 hours a session. Public charging outside metro cities fares worse, he describes stations as poorly maintained, with connectors that are genuinely difficult for an average user to plug in and operate. His verdict on charging experience away from home: 1 out of 10, and in his own words, "Very very and very bad."
His core takeaway for anyone considering the same car: an EV, in his experience, is not an anywhere-anytime vehicle. It works well for local use, and that's it.
Running Costs
On pure running cost, the Nexon EV Prime with 30kWh battery capacity delivers exactly what Harsh bought it for. His previous diesel car cost him ₹20,000-25,000 a month in fuel; the EV costs him roughly ₹2,400 a month to charge, close to a 90 percent drop. Basic maintenance, he says, runs at about a quarter of what his diesel car needed.
But that's only half the cost picture, and it's the half Harsh wants prospective buyers to hear. Beyond routine servicing, he reports that motor and gearbox repair costs have run to roughly five times what a comparable repair would cost on a traditional ICE car, and that specialised EV repairs have, at times, been expensive to source. It's a detail that rarely shows up in running-cost comparisons built purely around fuel-versus-electricity math.
Driving Experience
Regeneration mode is the feature Harsh uses most. He's also flagged a safety concern worth noting plainly: he reports that the brakes have not been working properly.
Ownership has changed how he plans every trip. With a diesel or petrol car, he says, route planning wasn't something he thought about. With the Nexon EV, he now has to plan travel in advance, watch the battery percentage constantly through a drive, moderate his speed to stretch range, and, on longer runs, switch off the air conditioning to extract a few more kilometres out of the battery.
The Ratings
Asked to score specific aspects of ownership on a scale of 1 to 10, Harsh's numbers tell their own story:
| Aspect | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ride Comfort | 10/10 |
| Features | 10/10 |
| Overall Ownership | 7/10 |
| Value for Money | 5/10 |
| Real-World Range | 1/10 |
| Charging Experience | 1/10 |
| Service Experience | 1/10 |
The split is telling: the car itself is comfort, features - scores full marks. The ecosystem around it, range delivery, charging, and service support is where Harsh's experience has fallen sharply short.
He also flagged having personally faced charging issues, software bugs, service delays, build quality issues, and a battery-related issue over the course of ownership.
The Verdict
Despite the list of complaints, Harsh says he'd buy the Nexon EV Prime again - "Definitely Yes." His reasoning is unambiguous: fuel and service costs are low enough that they outweigh the frustrations, but with a caveat he's careful to spell out, the EV is never his primary car. It's strictly a secondary vehicle, kept for local, in-town use only.
What he loves most about the car: its ability to handle waterlogged roads without trouble, and the fuel-cost savings that first drew him to it. If he could change one thing, it would be faster charging and more range, the two issues that, in his account, shape almost every other complaint on this list. His advice to anyone considering the same purchase is equally direct: an EV like this makes the most sense for higher-kilometre running within a local area, not as a car you rely on for distance.
