u/Busy-Cheesecake-5914

I am not able to move the car with the keyfob controls. When I asked in the service center, he showed it and moved the car.. he said that the car has to be off and I have to keep the AC button on the keyfob pressed for 5-10 seconds and the car mirrors open up and the car starts.. after that, the car would move..

But no matter what I do, I am not able to start the car from the keyfob. Anyone got this working? If yes, how? any setting inside the car to make it work?

Booked XEV 9S Pack 3 Above in Jan 2026 but waited a a couple of months to take delivery to check reviews. Finally got the car in May 1st week.

Short review : Amazing car! The comfort is awesome, the ride quality, the drive feed and the range is great. But they need to improve on the software. Overall, I really love the car. I just hope they fix these quirks! The car feels a 30L car but the software does not.

Detailed review :

• Drive : Driven around 3500 kms till now. Out of which 1700 kms on Highway and 1800 in city. Driving is very smooth and I really enjoy it. Very comfortable even after 8-hour trips. Handling is amazing, turning radius is great, pickup is awesome, space, comfort all amazing. There is a slight ultrasonic kind of sound that comes once car crosses 60, but service centre said everything is fine.
• Range : Initially for the first 1000 kms, don't go with the car estimate. It is still learning. It can show between 350-500 kms.. but after driving for 3500 kms, I can say with a mix of city and highway, with L1 regen, AC on 2-3 fan speed, maintaining a speed of 80-100 on highways, it can easily give 450 kms. I started with a full charge, drove around 360 kms on highway on speeds around 90-100 and it still showed 100 kms range. Charged at this point.
• Modes : Found Range mode to be best. Everyday mode is good and efficient, but somehow the suspension feels better in range mode. Race mode is a beast. You get that flight takeoff feeling if you push the accelerator too hard.
• UI / UX / Touchscreen : Everything crammed into the touchscreen is just stupid and bad. Especially AC controls as well. It takes 5-8 seconds for the UI to be responsive (after you turn on the car) before you can change or even turn on the AC. Imagine getting into the car in the hot sun and waiting for the touchscreen to show it's disclaimer, then turn on and finally be able to register touches.. and if you use android auto or apple car play, that will connect BEFORE even the touch is responsive.. so you are stuck in the heat figuring out this touchscreen nonsense. Not to mention the muscle memory you need to have to operate the AC from the four buttons + a dial behind the gear.. you need to remember which one is AC, press it, then PRESS THE DIAL to select fan speed and ROTATE THE DIAL to increase / decrease AC.. and if you want to change temperature, you have to use touchscreen. The screen quality is great, but everything in touchscreen is one of the biggest drawbacks of this car.
• Android Auto / Connectivity : I have NEVER been able to just connect simple bluetooth without android auto. It just did not work for me. I always have to connect android auto.. and the good or bad, android auto connects automatically every time. So if I want to listen to a song, great, its already connected. but If I want to change the AC, then I have to come out of android auto and then do it (or use the buttons & knobs overlay).. no way to disable "auto connect" of android auto. And the phone heats up like crazy if you keep android auto connected for long. on highway drives just using maps and spotify, my pixel phone heated up like crazy only after 30 mins.
• Software : This is where most of the quirks are and why it feels half finished. I checked all of the following in the service centre and their responses are also included below:
  • Drive Mode switching : There is no way to "set" a mode. Every time you turn on the car, it goes back to default / everyday mode. I like range mode, so everytime I stop and start the car, I have to wait for the touch screen to come up, switch the car to range mode, set my regen levels and then go (it can be done on the go as well, but I don't want to distract myself). Service centre says it is what it is. It can't remember your mode. You have to set it everytime.
  • There seems to be a "Guest" login on the central screen, but there is no way to login. Not sure why they gave that option. My guess is, since Alexa is built in, maybe you can have multiple different people login to their multiple Amazon accounts so that Alexa can properly recognise them? No idea. But there is no login. I am hoping they would create this login so that me and my wife can have different audio settings, alexa / amazon music accounts so that she can listen to her playlists and I can listen to mine. Service centre says it is what it is. No way to login.
  • Internal modes : Switching between single driver and driver with someone else should be made easy. If I am single driver in the car, I need to navigate the touch screen to set AC only for driver and set audio only for driver (hoping to save some battery).. while this is doable, it needs multiple clicks.. there should be an easier way.. like a single button switch. or at least build and Alexa skill for this.
  • Alexa : This is literally a pain! It has Amazon music by default, fine. but it takes forever to load and play a song! It literally took 2-3 mins.. it can be the network but it was painfully slow! Also, I added Spotify skill to my Alexa account, but that is not showing up in the car, even after logging out and logging in. This is tied to some Adrenox subscription, but I cant see that as well because the Adrenox app only supports 7XO and not XEV 9S yet. So I am stuck with Android Auto for Spotify which heats up my phone. Also, Alexa has no clue how to open the "moonroof".. I just want the sunroof to open WITHOUT opening the glass. Only open the inside roof.. but it doesnt know that. Also, it cannot understand "turn off second row AC".. it does not know what second row is. Kind of important I think for it to know.
  • Android Auto : While great, its a pain that Android auto takes over the full screen hiding all AC controls. No way to restrict android auto from auto connecting.
  • MAPPLS maps : The default maps in the car - MAPPLS and they have to seriously improve a lot. Half the places are not there on the map. Was not able to find restaurants or charging stations (which were present in Google Maps). And it has no context! E.g. I'm on a highway near Bangalore and I search McDonalds.. it literally suggests me a McDonalds from Noida! And it always is in dark mode.. I don't like dark mode during the day where I can barely see the screen in the sun glare.. There is an option in the Me4U app to set the maps to Google Maps.. but I am not sure what that did. I still see MAPPLS only.
  • Adrenox App Store : The default app store has bloatware apps like ShopClues and random quick commerce apps but does not have Spotify! if I want to use Spotify, I have to use Android Auto (which fries my phone) or Alexa skill (which it fails to recognize).. and it does not let you install any new apps.. Gaana shows up in the UI (when you click on the modesl button the steering wheel) but it's not present in the app store. Strange. I really don't know what's the purpose of this closed app store when I can't load at least music apps.
  • Multiple Apps : If you buy a Mahindra EV, you'll have to deal with apps like Me4U (the default car connect app), Charge_IN (charger app), Adrenox (another connected car app?) Mahindra For you (service app?).. and these apps don't talk to each other. Like there was an option to book a service in the Me4U app.. and I did, but nobody called. they just ignored it, I had to call the service centre to book another service. Also, the apps give you an option to add charging data but don't let you export it. I think they should let me export my own data to see how much money I spent charging.
  • Park Assist : This one is strange. If the place is too tight, it gives up. Does not even try. And to be honest even for less tight spaces, it does not park. It really needs a lot of free space for this work. Next, if it does find space and starts to park, it can give my up mid way! I was using auto park and at some point in between, it was not able to figure out what to do.. nothing changed since it started parking.. but it got stuck between two pillars and a stationary car and just gave up mid way and asked me to "remove obstacles"... self park / park assist really needs work.

Thank you for reading. If you have any more questions, you can ask on this thread.