Mahindra XEV 9e Stuck At Taglang La: Owner Explains What Really Happened [Video]
Mahindra's twin electric SUVs- the BE6 and XEV 9e- have both been racking up bookings and selling well. A lot of buzz surrounds these models. Plenty of videos of these vehicles can be found online, showing people experiencing their advanced features and doing crazy stuff with them. Recently, however, we came across a video of an XEV 9e that seems to have had a breakdown on a mountain pass in Himachal Pradesh! The video also explains how it ended up there, and shows how human errors can damage an electric vehicle and possibly have larger consequences as well.
XEV 9e Stranded In Taglang La: The Video
The video has been shared by the YouTuber Arun Pawar, on his channel. It shows him going on a trip to the Himalayas in his Scorpio-N. They soon see an XEV 9e parked by the snow-clad path ( not sure if it can be called a 'road'!). It is a narrow stretch, and the mysteriously parked EV gives the passing vehicles just the right amount of space to make it to the other side without brushing its side panels.
Pawar and his friends wonder what happened to the EV's driver and occupants and why and how it ended up being stranded there. They do a quick search around and find tow ropes inside the EV and the doors to be locked. After taking videos of the vehicle, which seems to be from Rajasthan, they continue their journey. They think it to have had a breakdown or battery drain, and the owner could have abandoned it.
The place they are in, is near Taglang La. It is extremely cold, the altitude is high and the Oxygen levels are low. So, it wouldn't be easy for the owner to get the EV towed home.
Tackling the tough terrains of Ladakh, they finally reached Leh. Interestingly, they met the EV's owner and his friends there. They explained what happened to the XEV, and the same can be an eye-opener for many EV owners.
Rakesh, the stranded EV's owner, says that they were on their way to Umling La- the highest motorable pass in the world, with the electric SUV. The convoy had a Jaguar F-Pace, a Tata Harrier, a Legender and the XEV.
They started in the morning and reached Tanglang La at around 10 pm. They say that the XEV 9e stopped working all of a sudden and returned an error message on the driver display that read ' Gear Shifter Failure: Drive vehicle without shifting gear to Mahindra dealer'.
Rakesh's friend says that the Park mode and all its brakes of the EV were engaged. They used the Jaguar SUV to tow and move it to the left side of the road.
Pawar continues to talk to them. The XEV owner then reveals something they had done with the vehicle which could have potentially caused the breakdown. Interestingly, none of them believes that to be the reason! They had started from Manali with a fully charged battery pack. But by the time they reached Jispa, it was down to 50%. They say this could be due to the steep climb and the vehicle weight.
The team , however, could not charge the vehicle at Jispa as they couldn't find an available charger and the hotel in which they stayed in, had no power plug! They were forced to continue without charging. Soon, the charge levels were down to 30%. It was at this moment that things took a wild turn.
They proudly say that they did a workaround to get the battery charged. They used the vehicle's regeneration mechanism to pump charge into the battery pack, by towing it for 10-15 km! This they say, got 10% additional juice. The EV further used regeneration and charged marginally on descents along the pass. They reached Tanglang La at around 10 pm and in another 30 minutes, the car stopped working!
The owner further says that Mahindra's RSA (Road Side Assistance) wasn't of any help in his case. He then called up his dealer in Rajasthan who helped him by connecting to the concerned Mahindra folks who later assured to arrange for a flatbed.
Playing Smart Messed Things Up
The workaround seems to have caused the issue here. Electric vehicles should not be towed with the 'D' mode engaged. When towing an electric vehicle make sure it is in Neutral (N) mode. Towing 15 odd kilometers with the D mode engaged, might have put too much strain on the vehicle's critical powertrain components.
Mahindra doesn't recommend rear-wheel lift, front-wheel lift, or flat towing with the XEV 9e. A flatbed is what's to be used in case of a breakdown. Using other methods they say, could damage critical components.
If a flatbed is not available, make sure to load the drive wheels- in this case, the rear wheels. The free-wheeling ones stay on the road. In cases where even a tow truck isn't available, make sure to have the 'N' mode engaged while moving the vehicle. If the vehicle has AWD, you are left with no option but to call out for a flatbed.
Bottomline
It is definitely not the car to blame here. We have seen another XEV user do the Gurgaon-Ladakh drive without running into trouble, and using the slow charger at hotel Kargil.