Tata Nexon Electric vs Tata Nexon Petrol: What's most cost effective

Electric cars going to be the future of mobility. Several manufacturers have now started entering the electric vehicle segment as they are gaining popularity. Hyundai had launched Kona EV in the market back in 2019 and later manufacturers like MG and Tata Motors followed the path and launched electric version ZS and Nexon SUV respectively. We have seen several videos on the internet where electric vehicles are compared with petrol engine cars. The videos show how petrol and electric perform differently and which one is more efficient and good for the environment. Here we have a video that calculates whether an electric or a petrol car is more cost effective in the long run.

The video has been uploaded by Diaz Academy – Thommichan Tips on their youtube channel. In this video, the anchor talks about whether the petrol or electric vehicle is more cost effective. For this video he takes Tata Nexon as an example and it is currently the only SUV which is available in electric and petrol versions. The vlogger makes it clear in the beginning that he is not an auto expert but has more than 13 years of experience in financial field. In this video he is just utilising his expertise in the field of finance to see whether Nexon EV is more cost effective than the petrol version.

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He chose Nexon EV’s XM trim which is the entry level variant and XMA trim in petrol Nexon. As EVs are not available with a manual gearbox, the vlogger has opted for automatic variant in the petrol version too. He is comparing on-road price Cochin of both the vehicles. The XMA petrol variant of Nexon cost around 10.05 lakh, whereas the XM variant of Nexon EV costs Rs 15.20 lakh. There is a price difference of around 5 lakh between both the vehicles.

He then calculates the running cost of petrol Nexon. Price of petrol in Cochin when he made this video was Rs 84 and the average fuel economy from Nexon petrol AMT is 14 kmpl. When he divides these figures, it shows that the running cost of Nexon petrol per km is Rs whereas the Nexon EV which has a 30 Kw battery and 312 kms of maximum range has a running cost of 0.67 paise per km. Without any doubt, Nexon EV looks like a better option right away.

The petrol vehicle will cost you about Rs 72,000 yearly for the fuel whereas the electric vehicle will only cost Rs 8040. Nexon EV has a battery warranty of 8 years and if the owner manages to use it for 10 years, the total cost of electricity would by Rs 80,000. The fuel cost when it comes to petrol Nexon will be around Rs 7.20 lakh (if the fuel prices remain constant). This is a huge difference and it started to look like EV is the way to go but then, the vlogger points out the initial price difference in both the vehicles (around 5 lakh). The vlogger then says, if a buyer planning to buy XM variant of Nexon EV buys the petrol AMT version and puts the difference amount as FD in a bank, he will have around Rs 9.30 lakh in 10 years which makes petrol Nexon more cost effective in long run.

The vlogger had missed out on couple of points in this video. The whole calculation on Petrol Nexon’s part relies on the fact that the fuel prices will be constant which is highly unlikely to happen. Secondly he missed out on other expenses that a petrol car owner will encounter if he has to keep it for 10 years. Cost of servicing a petrol Nexon is much more than that of Nexon EV and that included with the fluctuating fuel price will make the overall cost of maintenance even more. After including the maintenance cost into the equation, it looks like Electric version of Nexon is more cost effective.

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