BE 6 Review: Flawed in Multiple Ways
The Mahindra BE 6 electric crossover comes in two battery sizes, and three trims — Pack One, Pack Two and Pack Three. The bigger 79 kwh battery comes only with Pack Three. This is the car I test-drove, both in the city and on the expressway, and evaluated against my requirements. Based on this, I wouldn’t buy it:
The range is just 178 km at high speed.
The suspension is firm, so the ride isn’t as comfortable.
Its cooling has two flaws (see the Cooling section below).
All passenger seats are cramped, with poor headroom and legroom. I have to twist my body to get in and out, taking care not to hit my head against the low roof. That’s not acceptable. Even sedans, which are compromised in their headroom, have good legroom and I can enter and exit without hitting my head. The BE 6 is effectively a single-seater car, and I don’t want that. Even if I did, it should be less than 4 meters long, and I would be willing to pay 5 lakh, not the 33 Mahindra asks.
If you’d like to understand each aspect of the car in detail, read on:
- Looks angular and ugly
± EPB
- There’s no secure place to put my phone. I have to leave the center bottle holder empty.
+ Blind spot cameras on both sides.
± The car costs 33 lakh, and comes with a 3 KW portable charger, which works with any 16A socket, say in a cottage. And either a 7 or a 11 KW permanently-installed charger, for faster charging at home than the 3 KW1.
Comfort
+ 3-way electrically adjustable seat2
- The seat doesn’t move smoothly when I adjust it. It’s a subtle difference.
+ High-seating position
+ Good legroom
+ Good headroom
+ Both the top and bottom parts of the steering wheel are squared off, which makes it easier to rotate without hitting my thigh. An asymmetric wheel makes it easier to see the wheel position than a circular one, which looks the same at any position.
+ The steering wheel tilts and telescopes
- The header bar is huge, and the windshield and windows are small.
+ The wing mirrors have a wide field of view and objects appear big, making it easy to see them. It’s like watching a movie on a 55-inch rather than a 35-inch TV.
- When I indicate right, but another vehicle is to my right, the ADAS system keeps vibrating the steering wheel. This can’t be turned off3.
+ I can turn off coasting regen to avoid deceleration / acceleration cycles, which are less comfortable than maintaining speed.
+ The Range mode is the most comfortable.
- Starts with a jerk from auto hold, which I haven’t seen EVs do. EVs typically start smoothly, and petrol cars start with a jerk.
Digital features
+ 2 USB-C ports
+ No USB-A!
- No CarPlay, wired or wireless4.
Cooling
+ 2 USB-C ports
- The car doesn’t support AC on my lower body in auto, where I adjust the temperature and the car adjusts the fan speed automatically.
+ The door can accommodate two water bottles, whether a 1-liter Bisleri and a Thermos, or two Bisleris or two Thermoses.
± Only one center bottle holder
+ The bottle holder is universal — it has four small spring-loaded metal contacts that hold a smaller bottle in place so that it doesn’t rattle.
+ The center storage is cooled
- No rear window sunshades
- Panoramic moonroof. A sunroof works better to instantly cool a car that has been baking for hours in the summer afternoon sun.
Front passenger seat
- The roof is low and my head hit when entering
- Can’t stretch
+ Great headroom
- The seat is manually adjustable (front / back and recline) only
+ The windshield looks panoramic
± The dash is huge.
Rear seat
- The headroom is poor even with the moonroof open
- I can’t stretch my legs
- The view is poor since the C pillar intrudes.
- I had to be careful to not hit my head when exiting.
Actually, it’s 32 lakh, but Mahindra forces you to buy either the 7 or 11 KW permanently-installed charger, for an extra cost, which adds up to 33.
Car companies exaggerate this to say “6-way” but, of course, a seat that goes backward also goes forward!
This is a mis-feature in Pack Three.
Mahindra claims that wireless CarPlay will arrive later, but that’s what they told me in Feb, too. Buy products based on what they do at the time of purchase, not manufacturers’ promises about something coming “soon”.