This one has been a long time coming. Tata Motors has had SUVs in the segment above, and the segment below, but nothing to head-on, blow-to-blow, with 4.3-metre mid-SUVs. But things go head-on, blow to blow, with that 4.3m lot. The Renault Duster was launched in 2012, the Hyundai Creta in 2015. It is 2024, for crying out loud. Today the segment has exploded, and includes the Kia Seltos, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota Hyryder, Skoda Kushaq, Volkswagen Taigun and MG Astor. Tata Motors are more than a little late to the party. But now that they’re here, they aren’t trying to beat the incumbents at their own game. They’re mixing things up. They’ve dialed things up on the visual front with the SUV coupe silhouette. And they’re kicking their innings off with a BEV. Meet the Curvv EV.
Yes, there’s an ICE, two in fact — a brand new turbo-petrol along with a diesel that’s just around the erm… curve. However, they’re going with the top-down approach here. The EV will sit at the top of the line up, with superior performance than the other drivetrains but also a higher price, and that’s what we (and you!) can get your hands on first.
Prefer a video review? Click here and watch our detailed review of the Tata Curvv on YouTube.
There’s no getting around the styling conversation with this one. Ever since we dropped images of the production car that we saw at Tata’s UK design studio, social media has been rife with opinions. Some love it, some hate it, no one can ignore it. That’s the allure of the affordable SUV coupe. The face is more than familiar, it is almost the same face as we’ve seen on the updated Nexon EV / Punch EV. Split headlamps, charging port in the nose, a blanked out grille, a DRL light bar that also shows you charging status.
Then you move to the side. You notice the 18-inch wheels – aero-design that’s unique to the EV. You notice the flush door handles. You notice the usual black cladding, but now it is gloss black. Further back, it isn’t too hard to tell that the wheelbase has been stretched to 2560mm, 62mm more than the Nexon’s. The rear-end has a very fast line running from B-pillar to tailgate, ending in a very cool-looking tail light element. I quite like the way the Curvv EV looks in the flesh. Natural light takes the sharpness out of some of the cuts and creases, and the wheels don’t look as bad because the wheel arch and cladding is easier to distinguish. Styling is deeply personal and I’m sure these images are also evoking all sorts of opinions from you, but that’s the thing about good styling. It evokes opinions.
Step inside the Curvv and you can tell parts have been picked and chosen from across the range. The steering wheel is from the Tata Safari (and clearly a size too big for the Curvv), while the screens are from the Nexon EV — with a 10.25-inch cluster and a 12.5-inch infotainment screen. The centre tunnel and doors are from the Nexon again, but that brings with it limitations that the Nexon has — minimal storage space in the front, with the cubby hole under the armrest being too small for anything more than a wallet, while the other one under the air-con controls also houses the USB ports meaning you can’t store anything too large in there. The Curvv isn’t wider than the Nexon either, and while they have freed up a little room on the inside, it is between the seat and door, not the two passenger seats. That means elbow rubbing with the passengers is a possibility. It continues with only rake, no reach adjustment on the steering making it a little harder to find a comfortable driving position. While Tata Motors claims that this is an all-new platform and has no connection to older platforms, all this indicates that this is probably a heavily modified Nexon platform. The mid-SUV segment generally feels a step up from the compact SUV segment in terms of ergonomics and space on the inside, but the Curvv doesn’t seem to be getting those gains. The SUV-coupe makes up for it with plenty of kit though — electric adjustment and ventilation for seats, a 9-speaker JBL sound system, mood lighting, a panoramic sunroof, an air purifier, a wireless phone charger and a 360-degree camera. Plus level 2 ADAS which includes adaptive cruise control, active brake assist and lane keep assist.
In the rear, you have a backseat that reclines to two positions. Knee-room in the back is good, it is a little more than the Nexon, but it is nowhere close to class-beating while headroom is limited. My head wasn’t touching the headliner, but there wasn't more than an inch or so of free space above it. The width is a challenge at the back as well, limiting shoulder room for three. Under-thigh support isn’t great — a typical EV bugbear since the batteries raise the floor height. The Curvv EV’s backseat will do the job, but it isn’t where you’d want to be. That said, boot space is exceptional — 500 litres, expandable up to 973 litres — and it can be accessed through an electric, gesture controlled, tailgate which happens to be a segment first feature. Oh, and there’s a frunk as well.
The entry Curvv gets a 45kWh battery pack but we are driving the larger 55kWh which uses prismatic cells for the first time on a Tata car. This allows for better packaging of the cells unlike the cylindrical cells in their other EVs. There’s a single motor on the front axle making 165bhp and 215Nm. This motor has been used before in the Nexon EV, but has been dialled up for the Curvv EV. Get going and things are familiar — the electric drivetrain is quiet, quick and effective. Tata Motors claims a 0-100kmph time of 8.6 seconds which is quick but not enough to topple the XUV400 from its perch. Dial it in to Sport mode, floor it from standstill and it shoots off pretty quickly, the low rolling resistance Goodyear tyres scrabbling for traction. Under hard acceleration at medium to low speeds, there’s some amount of tugging at the steering wheel from all that torque going to the front wheels but you get used to it pretty quickly. Soon enough, you’re reveling in the power, making rapid overtakes in the city and on the highway and generally having a hoot. Getting up to 120kmph is very easy and it’ll sit there all day. Even the pull from 60kmph to 100kmph is quick, the uninterrupted torque feeling more rapid than the enthusiastic turbo-petrol engines some of its mid-SUV rivals have. But while the performance is on point, it is lacking the character those engines have — the ebb and flow of power and torque, dual-clutch gearboxes slamming in gears, and the sound that comes with all of that.
As for range, we need to test it for longer to get an accurate idea of exactly how much it would deliver on a single charge but it should be able to do north of 400-420km on a good day. This is obviously dependent on your driving style, the nature of the terrain, the temperatures outside and so much more. But 400km+ of range and this price point is really something! The Curvv EV can also accept charging at speeds of up to 70kW, and can top up 150km of range in 15 mins (or 10-80 per cent in 40 minutes), if you can find a charger fast enough that is. Like the other Tata Motor EVs before this, it continues with paddles for regen in four modes — 0 allowing you to coast off throttle and level 3 being the most aggressive in terms of deceleration. Level 1 and 2 feel the most natural for daily driving.
Ride quality has always been a strength on Tata Motors’ cars and that continues with the Curvv EV. I was wondering how the 18-inch wheels would turn out in terms of ride, and it isn’t too bad. It does deal with bad patches with composure, rounding off the edges of most bumps, ruts and potholes and isolating you reasonably well on the inside. At higher speeds, it remains well composed and can deal with highway blast without trouble. You will however notice a constant movement with the suspension, a lumpiness of sorts that was present on the Nexon too, and marginally improved here. I also did notice a sharp and extremely disconcerting noise from the front suspension if I hit a bump while on throttle. The first time it happened I thought I broke something.
The EV’s packaging also gives it huge advantages on the handling front. The Curvv EV has perfect 50:50 weight distribution, a low centre of gravity and a flatter roll axis. It is also 45 per cent more torsionally stiff than its mid-SUV counterparts. Combine all that with the big wheels and 215-section tyres, and you have an SUV that can handle. It has good composure in bends, feeling very settled, not rolling too enthusiastically and able to deal with a generous amount of lateral loads. Even the tyres don’t give up too easily. However, I wished the steering was a little more weighted in Sport mode and had more feel. It is a bit too light off centre and that just makes you feel disconnected from the front end.
Safety is obviously a big talking point of the Tata Curvv as it is for every new Tata these days. The claim is that it is 5-star crash test ready, though it hasn’t been put to the test by the B-NCAP just yet. You get ADAS level 2 features with front and rear radars that do the usual business of lane departure warning, collision warnings, rear cross traffic alert, and the like. A new development is the pedestrian safety system — a gentle hum that the car makes under 20kmph to warn people of the car’s presence. This is something you see on a lot of European cars as well, and this is the first Tata EV to get one.
Prices for the Curvv EV 45 start at ₹17.49 lakh, while the 55 starts at ₹19.25 lakh. This top-end 55 comes in at ₹22.9 lakh (ex-showroom) which means the Curvv EV competes directly with the upper end of the mid-SUV segment. The only other BEV alternative in this class of cars is the MG ZS EV which is priced between ₹18.58 to ₹25.43 lakh. BEVs aren’t completely mainstream yet, but that is what Tata Motors is trying to change with the Curvv — launching it in an extremely popular segment, and at a price that isn’t more than ICE alternatives from other brands.
The Curvv EV is a good attempt from Tata Motors, delivering on performance, comfort and features — as is the expectation in this class. However, the Curvv will have a hard time competing with the likes of the Creta and Seltos on space, interior quality, ergonomics and the general feeling of being an expensive car on the inside. Too much of the Curvv has been drawn from the Nexon, in the interest of cost obviously, but it does have an impact on how it feels from the inside. The car also had niggling issues — the DRLs occasionally stopped working and the latch for the bonnet was loose. These are pre-production prototypes but such issues shouldn’t be cropping up on cars after launch. The Curvv EV will certainly stand out in the segment with its styling and electric drivetrain, but the meat of the sales will come from the ICE Curvv with its three engine options and even more aggressive pricing. We’re going to be driving that soon too, so stay tuned!