Back in 1983, the Maruti 800 was the car that shaped Indian mobility. Every Indian was fixated with the 5-door hatch style. Now, the frontrunners in the EV era for entry-level segment are Tata Tiago EV and Citroen eC3 EV.
While the Tata Tiago EV has already been launched at a price of Rs 9.29 lakhs – Rs 11.49 lakhs (ex-showroom, New Delhi), Citroen has recently started bookings for the eC3 EV.
To be frank, the Citroen eC3 misses out on certain features like no rear defogger or rear wiper. This is a must feature, however, those willing to miss this, can still give the Citroen eC3 a look.
The Tata Tiago EV and Citroen eC3, both, are available in petrol versions too. Hence, they are not cars that were built from scratch entirely on EV platforms.
However, they represent what the modern Indian would look at – paying around Rs 94 for a litre of petrol in New Delhi is surely taxing.
When in the market for an entry-level EV, one must look at reliability of the EV battery as a primary consideration. Here, both these EVs sport sub-30 kWh battery packs. Hence, the real world range is likely to be in the vicinity of 200-250 kms.
Here is table of comparison between the two cars to enable you to make your choice better.
Tata Motors has already sold 2,000 Tiago EVs to customer in its widespread network of 133 cities in India. Citroen has been barely managing 600-700 units monthly in sales for the petrol variant, while Tiago is consistently registering over 5,000 units monthly sales for both its petrol and electric avatars combined.
The Tiago EV seems like the better choice as of now, at least on paper. On the other hand, We like Citroen eC3 for its space, ride quality and dual-tone peppy looks. However, the glaring feature omissions in the Citroen eC3 are a chink in its armor.
