The Tata Nexon is India’s safest compact SUV and this has gone down well with a lot of consumers lately. It is the only Indian spec ar under 15 lac to have been awarded 5 stars under the global NCAP crash tests. We have been using a diesel AMT model as our long term vehicle here at Cartoq for a while now and it has been throwing up a lot of surprises in terms of fuel efficiency. A regular 22-24 kmpl in NCR is commendable and hence we came up with an idea.
What if India’s safest compact SUV turns out to be the most efficient one too? We have been conducting a lot of economy runs with other models : for example 32 kmpl with the Compass, 28 kmpl with the Marazzo, and 45 kmpl with the Honda City diesel. So we thought why not repeat a similar thing with the Nexon too? We decided to stick to the same route, holding 78-80 km/h on the speedometer and driving the Nexon in Eco mode. The result is visible in the video below.
The Nexon diesel comes with an ARAI certified economy of 21.5 kmpl which means we achieved 75% over that. What is even more surprising is the fact that we drove the car at a good speed (w.r.t to an economy run) – had I driven the car at lower speeds of 65-70 km/h, the figure would have gone up even higher!
The Nexon diesel comes with a 1.5-litre turbo charged unit that puts out 108 bhp of power and 260 Nm of torque. This is second highest in the segment after the newly introduced Mahindra XUV300. At 1350 kgs, it not light weight either, being 135 kgs heavier than the Brezza. And yet such figures. With the Nexon now entering the third month of its long term tenure here at Cartoq, I must admit, I am impressed with this Tata offering.
Before I end, I do understand that not all of us drive at 75-80 km/h on an open four lane expressway. The video was done to see how much can a vehicle deliver when driven with a light right foot. Infact, with ever rising fuel prices, its not a bad idea to change your driving habits to get that extra out of every litre of fuel. Incase you want us to test a particular car model next, do leave us a comment under the video on our Youtube channel.
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