[abhatt]

I want to invest in an EV and new discounts are tempting. Is there anyone who feels good to own this car? I can live with panel gaps but I prefer my car to not have reliability concerns for 10 years. I think TATA will surely disappoint me with the later. Looking for some inputs here.

I am a huge fan of German cars for ICE but I feel Chinese cars will rule the EV world hence my heart is leaning towards the Indo-Chinese Windsor.

[Flash777]

I have a Punch EV and it has been a fantastic experience so far. It is the perfect and most premium Small car experience we can have right now. The nimble footprint makes it a breeze to drive in the city.

Advantages of Windsor over the Punch:

- Much more spacious car
- VFM
- Options of BAAS
- More assurances from MG

Advantages of Punch over Windsor:

- Smaller Footprint - easier to zip around
- Ride comfort and Handling
- Slight performance and range advantage
- 5 Star BNCAP rating for safety

I have been getting around 250-270 kms on a single charge consistently and haven't had a single niggle.

[CarCar]

Almost exactly my experience Flash777 and abhatt, with my Punch.ev, done 9000 km, doing an average of 2000km per month.

Punch.ev is the perfect city car.
I also do one Hyd city trip a month (320km round trip from my place), do fast charging at an eatery on the way and back also, while I eat some 'tiffin' and a coffee( the FC lasts 45 minutes from 45 to 95). The fast charger is ChargeZone and works perfectly. Btw, there is also a Tata fast charger which is out of order for at least 4 months now. Nearby another eatery has Jio-BP Pulse fast charger which works and I have used, but rarely, as I don't prefer eating there.

My passengers have only had praise and no complaints. And I have had no complaints.

There was this one instance a month ago (my car, a Jan 2024 model, bought in May 2024, and has been with me about 4 months now) when my car was parked and 'engine' was on, the AC cooling went down, while fan was running, I then did what I would do with any other smart electronic device, switched off the car and waited for 15 seconds and turned it oon, and viola AC was cooling back to normal. Not faced it again.

Some important features I enjoy daily:

• Both front ventilated seats, my back and thighs tend to get sweaty and I use the feature a lot
  
• Music is too good(love music, though not an expert) but mostly keep it off as I love silent driving. The silence of the car is so beautiful. I do appreciate the low whine of the electric motor when I can hear it, when there's no traffic.
  
• Regeneration paddles are really tuned well and one of the the best feature of driving experience of the Punch.ev, makes braking a smooth controllable affair, I use my brake pedal very minimally, anticipating the distance and letting the pressure off of the accelerator pedal. One particular lady passenger had severe cervical spondylitis and was wearing a neck collar to prevent sudden movements of her neck. She was really happy with the braking because in most of her other drives, braking would cause her neck to be pushed forward and initiate pain in her neck, whereas in this the (Regen) Braking was smooth and graded, and there were no sharp movements of her neck. I actually realised it when I drove with the same lady passenger in my 2020 model KIA carnival, and she felt pain during braking while seated in front passenger seat in that car.
  
• Cruise control, cc, I usually set at 75(for best mileage), on highways, and if I press the brake it deactivates cc. One feature I love is, say after slight braking my speed has slowed to 60km/hr I just press once the cc button on the steering wheel and it smoothly accelerates by itself to the set speed, 75km/hr . Deactivating cc can also be done by presssing this button twice in quick succession.
  
• Autohold is a godsend feature for traffic lightstops. Long press the brake, say on arriving at a traffic light, it holds well while still staying in D mode, and once the ltraffic is a GO, a gentle press on the accelerator releases the auto hold ... super smooth.

Minor dislikes: esp the Audio alarms!

• My most disliked feature used to be the loud audio alarm for vacant rear passenger seats, with all 3 seat belts unbuckled. Solved it by purchasing 3 dummies to put in the seat belt buckle slot!
  
• Audio alarm for drive mode change is also unwelcome if passengers are there. It sometimes invites needless questions from the passengers!.
  
• I also purchased a 4th dummy to put in my drivers seat belt buckle, for situations where I need to get out and in, in quick succession, for eg when you arrive home and need to open the gate and get in again to park the car. With the driver seat belt unbuckled, the car will refuse to move an inch.
• (All four dummies cost me about Rs.500)

[King_Julien]

Originally Posted by CarCar;5848034[*

My most disliked feature used to be the loud audio alarm for vacant rear passenger seats, with all 3 seat belts unbuckled. Solved it by purchasing 3 dummies to put in the seat belt buckle slot!

Instead of adding dummies on the rear seat buckle, there are 2 couplers behind the rear seat. It can be decoupled to remove the warnings. That is a cheaper option. ( I had already bought dummies before I knew it.)

[King_Julien]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

.
Two days ago, the sales person calls and says a frunk can be made available for Rs 3500 all inclusive - but he won't be able to generate a bill. Imagine.
This is Tata Motors - saying they won't give a bill. Why so? Some bull about not having a part number for the frunk in their "system". And yet they are able to source it no problem.

May be the frunk is assigned to some emp+S user who has not claimed it yet. May be the sales person is selling it in black

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by King_Julien

May be the frunk is assigned to some emp+S user who has not claimed it yet. May be the sales person is selling it in black

Spot on. And the chain goes all the way up, as few days later ,
when I spoke with the Dealer's CRM+GM both said - we will give you a cash receipt but not a bill.
In the meantime the emp+S user will wait haplessly for the spare.

[Quaser]

What is the spanner indication, anyone?

[It's Magic]

Originally Posted by Quaser

What is the spanner indication, anyone?

The spanner sign indicates a general fault or that the car needs servicing. The spanner symbol is usually a service light, indicating that it's time to book the car in for its annual service.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by Quaser

What is the spanner indication, anyone?

It is the service light indicating that the car needs service.

[mh09ad5578]

Fifth month update

Car has done 17.2k kms till now, ran a bit less as went abroad and car was parked at the airport for 12 days. Got the 3rd service done at 15k kms , got it serviced at my home town only. This was great convenience as didn't have to waste a day for the service. The service was pretty good, they fixed the driver door rattle and also adjusted the drive mounts for the slight front wobble (this didn't change behavior by much). They did wheel balancing and alignment but didn't do tire rotation as they said tpms would show wrong readings if positions are changed. Was charged 1750 rupees for it. Was a pretty good experience.

-Had to go abroad on a family vacation, drove down to Bangalore airport in the punch about 240 kns away, charged it to 80% at Devanhalli Shell Bunk went and parked in airport. Was apprehensive about landing back to a dead car and hence disconnected the 12v battery even though service guys said it would start without an issue. Came back and it started right back after 12 days and charge was at 75%. Not bad at all. Fast charged it to 100% at Shell and drove back to home town. Punch can take in two full size strollers in boot no issues.
- Realized that connected car features were not working after this in a day or two. Tried everything from factory reset to battery disconnect but it didn't work. Finally a kind soul on telegram asked to disconnect and reconnect the cable to the telematics box below the driver seat on Telegram and voilà it started working in a few minutes. Drove almost a week without telematics and it was a pain.

- the EV love affair continues.....

[KuZeal]

Spare wheel for under 3k:

Asked around for a 16" Rim at scrap mechants' locality in Mysore. Luckily found an almost unused Rim for ₹1200. Went to another area where they sell reused tyres. Found 2 Bridgestone tyres with the exact 195/60 R16 profile. Both had similar tread wear. But one had puncture patches from the inside which the guy was willing to sell for low price. Didn't want to take more risk, so chose the other one which had no puncture patches. Paid ₹1750 including fitment to the rim. The price depends a lot on your bargaining with these dealers. The wheel sits perfectly in the boot after removing the plastic mould. The tools are neatly tucked inside the wheel in a bubble wrap.

[Nikss5266]

I am completing 03 months of my ownership of TATA Punch EV clocked in 4000 Kms, bought in August 2024 and finally decided to write my ownership review.

I owned Ford Figo ZXI petrol since 2013 and was used shared with my brother, clocked in 57,000 Kms. The rising petrol costs always used to cut that long trip ideas to short ones due to low mileage of my Figo. Had been abroad to Canada for a year and my car was very less driven, as my brother prefers OLA / Uber. In Canada, bought a FORD Mustang Mach-e, drove around 5000 kms approx before returning back to India.

After returning to India tried using my Figo but would face frequent breakdowns due to rats, almost paid 40k in six months of use after coming back. Desperately felt the need to upgrade since mileage was around 7-8 KM/L and maintained costs were equal to a new car EMI. Finally the car broke down and it took 2 weeks for repair, wherein we decided to go in for a new car.

Didn’t want to go high on budget since mostly it would be used for city drive and we are used to flights for interstate travel. Narrowed down the purchase decision to Hyundai Aura CNG, Hyundai Exter CNG, Toyota Highryder, Hyundai Venue, Mahindra Thar 3 door and MG Comet.

MG Comet : I liked the small form factor for easy city drives, but family rejected bcoz Log kya Kahenge !!

Mahindra Thar 3 door : Loved the rawness of the car but read lot of user reviews and realised its not for the family, so had to drop the plan.

Hyundai Venue : Loved it but again Family thought too big for daily travel.
Toyota Highryder : Took a test drive but the car didn’t appeal to me nor to my mom.

Hyundai Exter CNG : It felt good considering the fuel economy and the green color, but mom didn’t feel comfortable in the back seat due to the seating position.

Hyundai Aura CNG : These felt good, had more boot space despite the CNG cylinders and the rear seats were super comfortable for long drives.

Finalised the decision to book White Hyundai Aura CNG, paid the booking amount and was awaiting loan approval.

In the meantime, received a call for test drive of Tata Punch CNG and decided to give it a go. However, the Sales guy accidentally bought Punch EV instead of CNG, top model. Since I had already driven an electric Mustang in Canada, found the performance at par and even exceeding expectations with little tweaks from Tata as per Indian roads.

Test drive of Punch EV was an absolute pleasure and the sports mode was just a thrilling experience. The only catch was it was exceeding my budget for 4 lacs and really had to give it a deep thought whether the experience is worth paying the extra 4 lacs. Was in 2 states and finally took the decision of cancelling the booking for Hyundai Aura CNG and booked Tata PUNCH EV Adventure S Plus LR model.

However, after browsing on the net for hours discovered Ackodrive.com offering Empowered Plus LR model for the same price 14.5 L on road inclusive of all charges. Negotiated with dealer but couldn’t match the quotation and finalised with Ackodrive.com

The dealer allocated was transparent and did the PDI, found the car ok and planned the delivery on my birthday. Didn’t select the Sunroof cuz it was not our need and went with the regular charger as car was being charged at my office.

In the meantime, I went through lot of car reviews, YouTube videos and realised there are issues but can be beared with considering the drive quality. The driving experience was exceptional in city traffic where it takes me an hour for a 15km drive in heavy city traffic of Mumbai. Also, I did a 1500 km long drive since my native is in Konkan and it takes around 14 hours with charging time and 13 hours comfortable drive with ICE.

There are lot of reviews and would like to highlight some points which I couldn’t see in the reviews, very small ones but deserve to be appreciated.

Cornering Lights : Didn’t see them in other cars but were super useful while taking sharps turns in ghats with narrow roads.

Regen Modes : Having an experience of driving an EV, I love the Regen modes. I always prefer to drive at Regen 3, so I don’t have to worry about slowing down after seeing a speed breaker and in cut to cut city drive. With Regen 3 my drive has been single pedal, only using brakes for long halts.

Hill Descent : In heavy rains, while descending from ghats, Hill control was super useful especially during the U pin turns. The car always feels in control.
Driving in ghats : Never ever felt driving through ghats will be so easy and comfortable, that too in economy mode.

Sound system and screen : For the price point, the sound quality is amazing and the screen quality as well. There are some lags but manageable.
Off-roading : The Mumbai Goa highway is the best road to test vehicles their city and off-roading capabilities. My vehicle did skid due the thick mud due to road construction but felt in control. The high ground clearance helps me explore the village roads unbothered.

Range Anxiety : I gauged the practical driving range with AC on and decent driving is around 250 Kms which felt sufficient to me considering the price point. In fact, while returning from Konkan the battery fell to 10% and we were 15 kms far from the only nearest charger. Used Regen braking consistently to keep the battery at 10%. That was a close call but more informed one.

Charging options : Researched the charger availability overall in the country, found it sufficient for long road trips. I have charged my vehicle at Jio-BP, Tata and CHargezone. Faced connectivity issues but resolvable. Charging stations at Petrol pumps, Bharat and Indian oil seemed to always non working.

I am happy with my purchase, ride experience and its reliability. The fuel costs are zero since I charge my vehicle at office. The service experience was bad since the service supervisors at Sudarshan motors, Bhiwandi were not so keen and interested for the 1st free service. But the product offered by TATA is superior for the price point which overlooks the clueless service centers.

I would definitely recommend an EV over an ICE for the ride quality, low maintainance costs and features offered in an EV.

I am planning for a roadtrip from Mumbai to Leh Ladakh, next month. Will share my experience if it finalises

[Jazzybala]

Originally Posted by Nikss5266

I am completing 03 months of my ownership of TATA Punch EV clocked in 4000 Kms, bought in August 2024 and finally decided to write my ownership review.

Congrats on your new steed, Nikss5266! I love this colour on the Punch! Gives it a subtle aggressive look in my eyes.

Originally Posted by Nikss5266

I am planning for a roadtrip from Mumbai to Leh Ladakh, next month. Will share my experience if it finalises

Wow!! That's mighty heartening to hear. Here's wishing that your plans do come to fruition, if only so that I can copy it.

[Nikss5266]

In my experience of driving Mustang Mach E and Tata Punch EV, the performance and ride quality is at par. If you can research more on how the car works, there’s no better machine for the price range, ride quality, features and reliability.

[Oxy]

I don't think it makes sense to buy the Punch EV anymore after the launch of the Nexon 45 EV (which comes with prismatic cells). Yes they are different segments but most people would find a way to increase their budget and go for the Nexon as it offers the better battery tech.

I hope Tata is thinking about the prismatic cell version of the Punch as well.