CIRCUIT BREAKER

How do your humble family e-SUVs fare against each other on the racetrack? A question no one asked, but here we are with the answer nonetheless.

- SHIVANK BHATT

If you want to assess a person's true character, watch how they behave when they're angry. And if you want to test a vehicle's engineering credentials, push it to its absolute limits on the track. Believe it or not, it's only when you drive a machine at the edge of adhesion that its true capabilities, underlying engineering, and limitations are laid bare. And that's precisely why we took the three seemingly humble family e-SUVs - the Hyundai Creta EV, Mahindra XEV 9e, and Tata Harrier.EV - for a day out on the track. Not to see if they can scorch the racetrack with blistering lap times, but to explore, or rather expose, their dynamic capabilities.

For this test, we used the shorter 2.1km layout of the BIC, which includes the racetrack's fast-flowing and technical sections. The job was simple - push these three SUVs to achieve their fastest lap times and see how composed each one feels without falling apart!

HYUNDAI CRETA EV: THE QUIET EVOLUTION

Of the three contenders here, the Creta is by far the most unassuming EV. Instead of wanting to look otherworldly, it sticks to the tried-and-tested formula of the ICE Creta and is all but indistinguishable from its petrol and diesel siblings. Coming to the technical details, the Creta EV isn't built on a dedicated electric vehicle platform like the Kona or Ioniq 5. It's basically your regular Creta that has been re-engineered under the skin to house electric architecture. Consequently, its dimensions are identical to those of the ICE version.

The only real difference lies in the weight - the Creta EV is around 250 - 300kgs heavier than the diesel Creta (1,265kgs), thanks to a big battery pack mounted in the floor. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, for it results in a lower centre of gravity, which offers it an edge on the racetrack.