Court Orders Rs 3+ Lakh Compensation For Tata Tiago.EV Owner For Missing features
The Consumer Court recently ordered a Tata Tiago.EV owner to be paid Rs 3 lakh in compensation and an additional Rs 10,000 to cover court expenses. Jithu Tony Joseph, a resident of Changanassery in Kerala’s Kottayam district, got a ruling in his favour after a 2.5-year legal battle. He filed the suit after finding out that the Tiago.EV sold to him lacked a feature promised in the brochure- reverse park assist with audible signal/ graphic display. The electric hatchback had a reverse parking camera with dynamic guidelines, but the audio alert/graphic display wasn’t functional.
Jithu bought the Tiago.EV from NK Motors, a Tata dealership in Kottayam. He was, in fact, one of the first to buy the electric hatchback from there. The Tiago.EV was first launched in 2022. Jithu had bought a Tiago petrol in 2019 and was having a pleasant ownership experience. He did not have to think much to pre-book the electric Tiago.
2022 was a time when the automotive business was operating a partly digital model. brochures were mostly digital, and it was difficult to get test drives of freshly launched models. Jithu says on video that he hadn’t driven or seen the preferred variant before making the booking.
He adds that he was given two brochures- one from the Manufacturer and the other from the dealer’s end. Both mentioned that the variant comes with reverse park assist with audible signal/ graphic display and reverse parking camera with dynamic guidelines. In simpler terms, both proximity sensors and a camera unit.
His petrol-powered Tiago had reverse parking sensors but lacked a camera unit. Jithu was particular about having a reverse parking camera on his new car, the EV. Right on the delivery day, he noticed that the car did not give audio alerts when it got close to obstacles. The camera unit seemed to be working fine. He flagged the issue with the dealer’s staff.
They, however, reassured him by saying that he can communicate the issue to the technicians when he comes for the first service (which, for the Tiago.EV, is at 1500km or in two months) and that they would get it fixed. Jithu believed this and took the car home. What he failed to notice is that the Tiago EV variant he bought had no visible sensors on its rear bumper.
When he took the car for the first service, the personnel clarified the same. His car did not come with rear parking sensors. It just had a camera unit. The brochure, Jithu says, showed the variant to be equipped with both. He was allegedly sold a car different from what the brochure claimed it to be, deliberately or otherwise.
Jithu then asked the technicians to install sensors on the vehicle, and was even ready to pay for the same. The staff refused to get the same done, as it is an EV and further clarified that the owner will lose the warranty if he gets the same installed from elsewhere. Jithu was disappointed by the response. He decided to escalate the issue to Tata Motors. He wrote to the company and was redirected to high-ranking executives for getting the grievance resolved.
This owner says that none of these efforts fetched results. He then took to social media explaining the situation. Following this, a high-ranking official from the dealer got in touch with him and started arguing. As things escalated further, Jithu felt insulted and took filed a suit at the district Consumer Court.
The legal battle went on for over 2.5 years. The dealer tried to defend its side, and an expert commission was soon appointed to inspect the vehicle and submit a report. The commission’s report aligned with Jithu’s claims. The court later ruled in his favour, directing a compensation of Rs 3 lakh and an additional Rs 10,000 for meeting court expenses. This, the ruling says, needs to be paid within 30 days. Failing to do so will result in the dealer having to pay interest as well.