Brought home my Punch.ev LR: Why I chose it over the petrol variant

I have charged it fully 2 times till now using the 7.2 KW charger which we purchased with the car. It took around 4 hours to charge from 28% to 100%.

BHPian karansingh recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

This is my first time posting on TeamBHP, I have been a silent reader of a lot of reviews and important automotive content since a long time now. Purchasing my first car pushed me to write a detailed review about the Punch.EV LR Empowered Plus.

This detailed review contains the entire journey from shortlisting the vehicle to its home-coming.

Background of the Car Purchase

We (parents and myself) have 5 vehicles a Honda Activa (2007), Tata Indigo (2008), RE Classic 350 (2016), Tata Hexa (2018) and a Kawasaki Ninja 1000 (2019). Once my student life was over, the Indigo became my daily driver. Covering the roads of Mumbai and its sub-urban areas.

In 2024 it turned 16 years old and although my father was behind me to sell the car and buy a new one, I wished to continue driving it because of sentimental value and also because of what it offered. The 4 Cylinder diesel was a boon in these times which used to return around 17 kmpl, while offering good enough power within the City limits (speed <80kmph).

In the summer of 2024, it started to amplify the issues and this time the issues piled up. Most of the components were new (radiator, fuel lines, hoses, fuses, relays, etc.) yet the car started giving up. At times I had to do Goregaon to Thane with a burning smell. One fine day the car just died in BKC (an area in Mumbai) and refused to start. It created chaos on the roads and there was no help. This happened in the peak sun at 12 pm. As a last shot to life, we replaced the fan and the fan belt which came at a good cost and within 2 days the car was dead again.

The Shorlisting

In March 2024, with a heavy heart we let go of the car and thus began our search for the replacement car. We were looking at a small car which could accommodate 3 people and a dog, was easy to maneuver in the city, was safe and reliable and had an automatic transmission.

We test-drove the following cars,

• Tata Punch.EV/ ICE
• Tata Nexon Diesel AMT
• KIA Sonet
• Maruti Fronx
• Hyundai Venue

All the cars were good but then it came to the features and safety and we were left with the Punch, Nexon and Venue.

Venue offered a good features list but was disliked by my father. The Nexon was a good candidate for what it offered, but somewhere I found the AMT to be sluggish. Punch ICE was just too basic so we were left with 1 option, the TATA Punch.EV.

We gave a booking amount to Heritage Motors, Thane and the wait began.

Post Booking Finance Issues

A. Loan Fiasco

Working for a large financial institution, it was evident that I would bargain and also get better rates for having a significantly good credit score, yet the loan department at the dealership was not accommodating.

I took the matter in my hand and went out shopping for a better interest rate. It took some days but I got it from SBI at 8.85% (7 year) compared to the lower limit of 9.15% offered by Tata. (If I had opted for a 5 year loan the rate would have been 8.75%)

B. PDI Fiasco

I had made it very clear that I wanted to conduct a PDI on my own, for which the dealership happily agreed. Yet PDI was about 2 weeks late. The reasons stated were childish, (wrong car came from the plant, car is still in Panvel, etc)

C. ITR Fiasco

Post completion of my MBA it is my first job and I did not have an ITR, to which the showroom people said that the ITR of my father will work. A day after I asked SBI people to disburse the loan amount, the showroom people came back to me saying it cannot be done as I don’t have ITR of past 2 years. I was furious as this was not communicated before and then started a long conversation of 2 days.

Crux- I told them that paying 5% TCS was fine if they had told me earlier, and I told them that it is anyways not an amount which they would get, it is a Tax to be paid to the government by me. And my fathers ITR was anyways given to them. The car was almost cancelled by us when the showroom people said that it will work provided, I submit 26AS to them. Which we happily did.

Homecoming

On 14th June 2024, we took the delivery of the vehicle and I have to say that the colour (Flaming Red) is really great. The showroom guys told us that ours was the first Red Punch.EV in Thane. Using the PDI checklist provided by TeamBHP I checked the make and year (May 2024) during my PDI visit and it matched with the car on the delivery day. The tyres were made in the first week of April ’24, which meant that the car was fresh out of the factory.

First Week

It is a fun-small car to drive, it has enough power to keep up on the highway and also smooth enough to drive within the city at 20-35 kmph speeds.

I covered around 390 kilometers in the first week, and as of today (26th June ’24) it is at 502 kilometers.

I have charged it fully 2 times till now using the 7.2 KW charger which we purchased with the car. It took around 4 hours to charge from 28% to 100%.

The ECO mode with Regen at 3 is the most used combination by me, because in bumper-to-bumper traffic and also on the busy highway it has enough power for quick overtakes and uses minimal battery power.

I will be sharing a lot of data as the days go by, I am excited to connect with the other EV users on the forum, maybe we can have a small repository of EV data.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.