Government of the God’s own country, Kerala has selected India’s own fully-electric long-range vehicle the Tata Nexon EV for the Government of Kerala’s Motor Vehicle Department (MVD). The Government has procured a fleet of 65 Tata Nexon EVs which are set to become a part of the Motor Vehicle Department’s ‘Safe Kerala’ programme. The 65 Tata Nexon EV’s will strengthen Safe Kerala programme by effectively managing the state’s vehicular traffic round the clock.
The Safe Kerala programme aims to significantly reduce the traffic offences and enhance road safety in the state. The programme also addresses various aspects of road safety such as providing safe roads, training of drivers, raising awareness in pedestrians and ensuring that the traffic is managed in an effective manner, further reducing traffic violations and accidents.
The Motor Vehicle Department of Kerala will be leasing 65 Tata Nexon electric vehicles for a tenure of 8 years. The leasing will be provided by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) via the Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT). Today on 7th November 2020 the first batch of 45 Nexon EVs were delivered to the Motor Vehicle Department of Kerala in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram.
The Tata Nexon EV is powered by a liquid-cooled Permanenet Magnet Synchronous Motor coupled to a 30.2 kWh High energy density Lithium ion battery pack rated to IP67 ingress protection standards for dust and water that develops 129 PS of power and 245 Nm of torque paired to a single speed gearbox and Multi Drive modes. The Tata Nexon EV delivers a long range of 312 km of a single battery charge, as per the ARAI. The electric vehicle features CCS 2 standard charging and requires 8.5 hours to charge from 10% state of charge to 90% using any 15 A plug point and an estimated 60 minutes to achieve 0%-80% state of charge on a fast charging system.