The XUV 400 Is a Buggy Car with Short Range
I did an extended test drive of the XUV 400 crossover, which is electric only, both in the city and on the highway, and evaluated it against my requirements. Based on this, I wouldn’t buy the XUV 400.
There are a few reasons: poor range, bugs, the poor experience of Mahindra, and cost. Let’s look at each in detail:
Poor range
The battery was at 70% when they started from their showroom to my house (1 hour). Then, we did a 70km test drive, at which point it was down to 12%. They were worried that they won’t be able to make it back to their showroom before the car runs out of power.
The salesmen themselves told me not to take the car out on the highway, even if my destination is just an hour away. They said it’s meant to be a city car. That means you should buy it only as a second car.
On top of that, the range indication is unreliable — it suddenly decreased by 6 km when we drove only 2 km. The salesman said that it’s always unreliable. He said that when it’s fully charged, it shows a range of 350-400 km, but gives only 250 km, 280 at the max, so we can never trust it. He said that if we drive continuously at the maximum speed of 160 kph, we can expect a range of 150 km. But, realistically, since we’re not going to be driving at 160 throughout, let’s assume a range of 200 km. And that’s when it’s new. After a decade, let’s say it has lost 30% of its capacity, resulting in a range of 140 km. That’s not even enough to go from Bangalore to Vellore on a single charge:
When you go on a journey that exceeds the range of the car, you have to stop at fast chargers. The salesman told me that the fast chargers stop charging once the battery reaches 60%, rather than charging slower. So you have to stop every 60% x 140 = 84 km to recharge! This is not feasible for a long journey. You’ll be stopping all the time.
To find a charger, you need to learn the specifications of your car. To charge the XUV 400 at the fastest speed, you need a 50 KW charger with a CCS2 plug:
Unfortunately, the fast charger network in India has huge gaps. Say you want to take the road trip of a lifetime to the North East:
This entire 2650 km journey covering 6 states doesn’t have a single charger that meets the aforementioned requirements!
You might object to this comparison saying that I’ve deliberately chosen obscure origin and terminus towns to make the charging network look bad, and that I should choose metros instead. After all, EV buyers disproportionately reside in metros. So let’s try Bangalore to Hyderabad. Both megacities and their outskirts have plenty of fast chargers:
But the gap between these boxes — Penukonda to Kurnool — is 220km, which is out of range. You’ll have to stop at a slow charger and wait many hours.
All this is assuming you chose the variant of the car with the biggest battery, as you should.
The car comes with a 7.2 KW charger that is permanently installed in your house. When I move, I’ll have to get it re-installed, with an additional fee and hassle. This isn’t ideal for people like me who rent.
Bugs
The car comes with a full suite of bugs, of which the randomly fluctuating range indication is only a teaser:
- CarPlay and Android Auto are not enabled. If you’re buying the XUV 400 today, you should decide based on what it has now, not what it might at some unspecified time in the future, which means no CarPlay or Android Auto. If that’s a requirement, the XUV 400 is not for you.
- In the front passenger seat, as I was trying to recline, the handle broke off! The seat was in an awkward position for the rest of the drive. So it’s not just the software that’s defective, but also the hardware.
- After a while, the music stopped playing. I’d press play on the iPhone, and the timer would keep increasing, but I could hear nothing. No, it wasn’t muted, and neither was the volume at 0.
- The car has an on-screen manual. When I tried to open it, it didn’t load.
- The car said that there’s a software update and asked me to park to apply it. When I did, the Update button became greyed out. When we tried again, it said there are no software updates.
- The FM suddenly blasted at high volume. Did I touch a steering wheel control?
- When there are so many bugs, it’s possible that the software is architected poorly, in which case fixes won’t be possible quickly. This is something I deal with regularly as a tech advisor to CXOs: too many bugs are an indication that the product is architected poorly and defective at its core, in which case fixing it will take a long time. This is because the fix is not a surface level fix (like painting a building). Instead, it’s about rebuilding the core (like building a building with defective cement, then realising it and tearing it down and rebuilding it with good cement). If that’s the case with the XUV 400, the bugs may not be fixed in a quarter after you get it.
- To find a charger, you have to use the crappy PlugShare app:
In the PlugShare app, you can filter by different plugs, and I filtered by CCS2:
Notice that the Shell Old Madras Road charger disappeared. Compare the two screenshots to see for yourself. And this is the unreliable app you’ll have to depend on not to be stranded. I’ll instead use a traditional petrol pump that doesn’t require an app and that I can find reliably using Google Maps or just by looking as I drive.
Besides, PlugShare by default shows chargers that are “coming soon”, which doesn’t help. And it shows “load-balanced” chargers: if you filter by 120 KW chargers, it shows some that have 2 plugs that reduce to 60 KW when both are occupied. PlugShare should consider these to be 60 KW and not show them when you filter by 120.
PlugShare has another bug: I told it that my vehicle is an XUV400, and it autoselected compatible plugs:
Except that if I roll up to a charger that has a CCS1 plug, it won’t fit in the XUV400’s CCS2 port, since CCS2 is squared off at the top, as you can see above. So you have to remember to deselect it; otherwise you might get incompatible chargers.
This doesn’t even cover the problems people are having with chargers: one charger has a review saying that it lets people charge only for ₹249! Another requires you to scan a QR code, which doesn’t scan because of sun on the screen. A third is out of power. A fourth has a comment saying that although it’s a 60KW charger, it charges at 14KW, since it’s not hooked up to a transformer yet. A fifth is marked UNDER REPAIR. Even if it’s working perfectly, all connectors could be occupied at the time you go.
Some of these problems affect all EVs. They’re not ready, except perhaps as a second car for city-only use.
The Poor Mahindra Experience
The XUV 400 has been recalled in Aug 2023, because the brake wouldn’t release after the brake pedal has been released. This is dangerous and can cause your car to spin out of control or to be rear-ended.
Other Mahindra vehicles have also been recalled:
Along with the XUV 400, the XUV 700 was also recalled — almost all cars manufactured!
More recently, in 2024, the Scorpio N was recalled.
Earlier, in 2021, some diesel vehicles were recalled.
In 2019, the XUV300 was recalled. And the Imperio pick-up truck.
In 2017, Mahindra recalled the Ssangyong Rexton.
In 2015, the XUV500 was recalled.
Launching defective vehicles and recalling them is the modus operandi at Mahindra. If you buy knowing their history, don’t be surprised if your vehicle is defective and sold before it’s ready.
If you buy a Mahindra, don’t trust a word of what the salespeople say. They’re clueless. One would say yes to everything I asked. When I asked him, “What did you say yes to?” he’d tell me something different from what I asked him. It’s like:
Does this hotel have a view of the sea?
Yes.
What did you say yes to?
Yes, we provide laundry service.
At one point, I asked, “Does this car have X?” and he said yes. I wasn’t convinced he knew what he was talking about so, 15 min later, I asked him, “This car doesn’t have X, does it?” And he said no. So, don’t base your purchase decision on what the dumb salespeople says. If you need X, don’t buy it because the salesman said it has X. And this is across dealers.
In addition to not knowing what they’re talking about, many of their salespeople don’t return calls or respond to WhatsApp messages. Or postpone a test drive after they’ve committed a date. Besides, you may have to visit multiple Mahindra showrooms to find the model you want. If it’s so bad before purchase, how much worse will it be after, when they already have your money and you’re at their mercy?
It’s more nuanced than whether Mahindra is good or bad. It’s what they’re good at, which is internal combustion SUVs1 with a body-on-frame construction and rear- or 4-wheel drive. When you buy an XUV 400, you’re buying an electric car with a monocoque construction and front-wheel drive — you’re buying something outside Mahindra’s core expertise and history. It’s like buying a server from Apple. Apple makes some of the best devices in the world, and I use a Macbook Pro, iPhone, iPad Pro and AirPods Pro, which doesn’t make them good at making servers. For the same reason, I’d feel more comfortable buying a Roxx from Mahindra than a XUV 400.
Cost
EVs are not cost-competitive. The XUV 400 costs 19 lakh on road in Bangalore, and I can get a petrol Kiger or a Magnite for 15, which are much better cars — they’re more spacious and comfortable, they don’t have range problems or bugs. They just work.
We also don’t know about the resale value of EVs: the battery is the costliest component, and when it degrades, getting a new one may or may not make financial sense. If it doesn’t, you’re writing off your entire car. This, in turn, makes EVs even costlier.
EVs are not ready. Buy a petrol vehicle. The vehicle you buy when that reaches its end of life will likely be an EV, anyway.
Detailed strengths and weaknesses of the XUV 400
+ Adjustable seat belt.
+ Under-arm storage
+ The 12V charger can supply a massive 120W which can fast-charge any laptop, say if you’re on your way to an important meeting but you forgot to charge your laptop before leaving home. In today’s power-hungry world, more is always better.
- There are two USB-A ports, but no C.
- The seats are beige-colored, almost white, which require more maintenance. One of the test drive Mahindras has a seat that’s already dirty.
Comfort
+ Great legroom
- Bad headroom
- The seat isn’t electrically adjustable.
+ The steering wheel doesn’t touch my legs.
Electric
- Requires 8 hours to charge at home, from 0 to 100%, according to the salesman.
- Fast charges from 0 to 60% in 2 hours, after which it stops charging.
+ Uses the CCS2 plug.
- It doesn’t regenerate when you press the brake. Ideally, the car should use regen as much as possible, using the brake only beyond the ability of the regen system. This split should be taken care of by the car and the driver shouldn't need to know. This is called blended braking, and it increases the range of the vehicle and reduces the wear on the brakes. Unfortunately, the XUV 400 doesn’t implement it.
Driving
+ Superb acceleration: fast, effortless and fun. And smooth, if you ease into the accelerator.
+ Moves smoothly when you release the brake from a standstill
- No auto hold.
- The steering wheel is very light in eco mode (“fun”) but not in sport mode (“fearless”). Still comfortable to drive.
- It would be easier to understand if they they called them eco / normal / sport, like everyone else, rather than fun / fast / fearless. While driving, it’s confusing which is which. “Fast” is not actually the fastest.
- When you take your foot off the accelerator, it regen’s. This results in an uncomfortable drive of acceleration-deceleration cycles, rather than coasting. This is milder in sport mode. This regen can’t be turned off or reduced.
- The car can’t handle bumps at speed.
Cooling
+ Powerful AC
+ Climate control
- You can remotely start the AC, but not if the car has been parked on an inclined road, plus some other conditions. The salesman didn’t know what those were. So, it’s safer to not count on remote start.
- No ventilated seats
- No rear window sunshades
+ Glovebox is cooled.
+ Dual-zone AC.
± Sunroof but not panoramic.
Front passenger seat
+ Lots of legroom; this is the first car where I can stretch fully, without my feet touching anywhere. It’s amazing to have so much legroom, more than I need (I don’t need to stretch fully to be comfortable).
+ Good panoramic view; low seating position.
- The suspension is not buttery smooth like the Creta.
- Height can’t be adjusted.
Rear seat
- Bad legroom
- Low headroom, worse than the front seat.
+ USB-C
+ 12V 120W charger socket
+ Center armrest with two cup holders
- The window isn’t panoramic
+ Dual AC vents with independent up/down/left/right adjustment
- No AC controls, so you have to request driver to keep adjusting the AC for you.
+ Mobile holder
- The seat back has strings on sides, not a pocket, so things can slide out the bottom.
Any vehicle with front-wheel drive or monocoque construction, like the XUV 400 or the Creta, isn’t even an SUV. It’s a crossover.