Tata Motors on October 18 launched the five-seater mini SUV Punch at an introductory price of Rs 5.49 lakh, the first all-new product launch by the company in 2021. The Punch prices will be applicable for the first three months of the launch, Tata Motors assured.
The Tata Punch is positioned below its Nexon and will compete against the Renault Kiger and the Nissan Magnite, priced at Rs 5.6 lakh. The Maruti Suzuki S-Presso and Mahindra KUV100 NXT are the two entry-level SUVs in India priced below the Punch.
Tata Motors opened bookings for the Punch for Rs 21,000 on October 4. The Punch, designed on the platform used by the Altroz premium hatchback, scored a crash safety rating of 5 from Global NCAP. While Tata Motors maintained that the Punch has been received very well in the market the company refused to divulge booking numbers of the same.
Shailesh Chandra, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, "As a policy we don’t disclose bookings, but we can say that the Punch has attracted the highest booking ever for us. They are much more than expected. We hope the momentum will be sustained and it should be one of the highest selling cars in our portfolio.” Booking for the new car are skewed towards the top-end variants, Chandra confirmed.
The Punch went into production in September thereby helping Tata Motors to create a comfortable inventory of the SUV. Despite the uncertainty around semiconductor availability deliveries of the Punch to customers wont be impacted at least for a month.
The Punch will be available in four variants—Pure, Adventure, Accomplished, Creative—that Tata Motors is calling as personas. The top-end manual variant is priced at Rs 8.49 lakh. The mileage generated by the Punch under test conditions on the manual version was 19km per litre.
The Punch is available in manual and automatic-manual transmission (AMT) versions. The AMT variant is priced Rs 60,000 more than the manual variant. In addition, there are four customisation packs available starting at Rs 30,000.
Just like most other models priced below Rs 6.5 lakh, the Punch will come only with a petrol engine for now. The mini-SUV is powered by a 3-cylinder 1199cc engine that delivers peak power of 86ps.
The SUV, which will be available in seven colours, will come powered by the same 1.2 litre naturally aspirated petrol engine seen on the Nexon.
The company will keep its options open for a turbocharged version and a fully electric version, depending on consumer feedback.
Also read: Tata Punch gets a 5-star safety rating, here is how its rivals stack up
The Punch comes with dual airbags, ABS with EBD, engine start-stop, Eco and City drive modes, 90 degree opening doors, flat floor in the rear, steering mounted controls, 7-inch infotainment system, rear camera, voice commands, cruise control, height adjustable driver seat, auto folding ORVMs and temperature control.
Tata Motors claims that the Punch has been tested for more than 2 million kilometres clocked on 150 prototypes. These were driven in hot—50 degrees Celsius in Rajasthan— and cold conditions—minus 10 degrees Celsius in Ladakh. The car will is being at the company’s Pune facility.
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