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Why I chose the Tata Punch EV over the Exter, Fronx and Baleno

15th June 2024, 16:34 by Ananth Iyer

I'd be spending around 6000 rupees just on fuel for the Punch, while I'd be spending 600 on the Punch EV, every month.

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Tata Punch EV Adventure LR variant review:

As the Odo of my Punch EV Adventure LR variant finally hits 1000 kms, and after covering that distance in perhaps half the time I used to drive when I had my old WagonR, one thing I can safely say is that this is a car that asks you to drive it more. This will be a bit of a long review that will also cover the other cars I considered and how I finally landed on the Punch EV, and specifically the Adventure LR variant.

It all started in November 2023, on the way back from my college, which is on Mysore Road, in my trusty 2019 WagonR MT. I got stuck in a traffic jam that really made my left leg groan. But that was fine, nothing I couldn't live with, given my love for the connected feeling of manuals. However, I saw that the source of a jam, was a WagonR that had been hit from behind by a Nexon. Now I don't know whose fault it entirely was, but the WagonR was completely mangled in the back while the Nexon looked like it had just been in a minor accident, and that incident shook me a little. Plus the WagonR's terrible safety record and its plummeting mileage( a paltry 10 kmpl) convinced us enough to hunt for new cars. And the TDs promptly started. Our main focus was on safety, and then mileage, since we have only cars at home and this would be our daily driver, so good mileage and being cheap to run was a must. Also given that this would be a city car, an automatic would be preferred, but we would do a test drive of the manuals, to check if the clutch was light enough to manage in the city. These are the cars we test drove, and in order.

Toyota Glanza

Having recently bought an Innova HyCross, the Glanza seemed like a nice car, and our Toyota SA, the same nice man who'd sold us the HyCross was kind enough to bring it to our home for a TD. But unfortunately I disliked the car, and so did my mother. We felt it had pretty terrible visibility, and it just seemed so cumbersome to drive in traffic. Plus it was 11.5 lakhs on road for the MT top end, which honestly was the only option since everything else didn't even have some basic features, and the automatic was an AMT so it just seemed like a bad proposition. Plus, it is a rebadged Baleno, which again, isn't known for its safety. So it was dropped.

Maruti Suzuki Fronx

I liked how the Fronx looked, and we did a TD of both the 1.2 NA + MT version, as well as the top end turbo petrol AT. The NA + MT felt just as cumbersome to drive as the Glanza and was dropped. The top end turbo petrol AT, was a nice car, I liked the pickup, it was a smooth and proper automatic, not a head nodding AMT. But it was north of 15 lakhs on road, which I felt was an absolutely absurd amount for the car. Plus, it was basically a raised Baleno and it did not strike me as particularly safe. On top of that, I knew I wouldn't get great mileage from the car, so had to drop it.

Tata Punch Petrol

Now this was a good car. I loved the build and how strong the car felt, I loved how the car looked, it was nimble and it had a wonderful suspension that just blew whatever Maruti offered out of the water. It was a breeze to maneuver in traffic and seemed great. But unfortunately, this also was offered with only an AMT for an automatic option, plus I found the NVH levels way worse than those of the Baleno family. The engine was also dull and unenthusiastic, and I felt my WagonR had a way peppier and rev-friendly engine than this. A close friend of mine who owns the Punch Petrol AMT also shared that he gets an appallingly low 8 kmpl in the route we take for our college. So this also was dropped.

Tata Punch EV

Overall, I was extremely disappointed in the car scene and briefly suspended our lookout for a new car. But around January, the Punch EV was launched, and my interest was piqued. So I went for a TD at the end of January, and man, it was love at first ride. The driving dynamics, the power on tap, the NVH, the visibility, it was all just fantastic. I had more or less made up my mind but my mom had to drive it once, and the SA brought it home, where we did another TD and then booked the vehicle.

I was all for going ahead with our Punch booking and for our needs, I'd decided that the Adventure LR variant would be perfect for us. Then the negativity started, all our relatives, a lot of friends spooked off my parents with fears that an electric car would be difficult to charge, what if we got stranded somewhere, what if the car caught on fire, what if it short circuited while in the rain, and the fact that it was a minimum of 2 lakhs more expensive than any Petrol option we were looking at. All of which made my parents take a pause and evaluate other cars.

Hyundai Exter

We tested out the Exter AMT, as my parents insisted on an automatic to combat the horrendous Bangalore traffic, and the SA from Blue Hyundai was kind enough to arrange for a TD the same day. It was a decent car, I liked the interiors, it was supremely spacious, had a good list of features and the AMT was actually far smoother than I expected it would be and the paddles were a pleasant surprise. But the engine whined so much in uphill roads, and it just felt so extremely underpowered with terrible NVH. Maybe I felt like this because I'd already fallen in love with the Punch EV's instant torque and class leading NVH. But I also disliked the suspension setup of the Exter and it just didn't seem to have the same sturdiness that the Punch had. Plus the SA's veiled threat that taking insurance from outside could lead to delays convinced us to drop this car as well.

Realising that no car cheaper than the Punch EV was going to be as good, in terms of power, in terms of handling, in terms of NVH, in terms of ease of use, we briefly considered going half a segment above and checking out the ICE versions of Nexon, Venue and Brezza, but we all realised, what we wanted was a daily driver which had to be an automatic, had to be very safe, and also had to be very fuel efficient, while not being a diesel, since a lot of our runs are less than 10 mins. Unfortunately, that's not a combination that is available in any segment as all petrol automatics have bad FE and the ones that have decent FE are diesels.

Plus I realised, going for the Punch Petrol AMT variant with all the features that I was getting in the Adventure LR variant, plus a few more like automatic headlamps, I'd have to go for the top end version which would cost 11.5 on road in Bengaluru. Even assuming that I would get 10 kmpl from the Petrol AMT in heavy traffic, which is where the car would run the most, and assuming that I'd get 220 kms of range on the EV, for my running, I'd be spending around 6000 rupees just on fuel for the Punch, while I'd be spending 600 on the Punch EV, every month. The EMI for the Punch EV was going to be 7000 more, so at the end of the day, considering fuel, I'd only be paying 1500 rupees more per month for the EV. Plus half the servicing costs, and once the loan tenure was over, we'd save even more money.

This was far more than just acceptable as we were getting a superior package in all ways, and whatever extra I'd pay each month, I'd recover it all within 6 months of the loan tenure getting over. The resale was also not a great concern to me, as we typically keep our cars for 5-6 years, except for our Innovas, which we keep for at least 10 years. So the battery would still be in warranty by then, maybe the resale is a bit lesser, but I don't mind taking a small hit in depreciation for more than half a decade of unmatched comfort. Plus even if we kept the car for more than 8 years, these are LFP batteries, their minimum life
is 1000 cycles, and if maintained properly, goes all the way to 3000 cycles, so even in the worst case, the battery would be good for 2 lakh kms, and honestly, if you're somebody who is selling a vehicle with 2 lakh kms on the Odo, unless it's a Toyota, you can't really command a big price.

Would there be better EVs in 5-7 years? Absolutely. But given that inflation is a thing, they would also all be more expensive. EV adoption would only go up by then, and just as a lot of new drivers these days buy an older used petrol or diesel, there may be a lot of new young drivers who may want to drive an EV and prefer going the used car route. I know it's not exactly an apple-to-apple comparison, given that ICEs are already a mature technology while EVs are plenty to evolve, but the Indian used car market is also very much of a seller's market still, given that's there's so much demand. So all these data points pointed towards the best decision being the Punch EV. It was a victory for not just the heart, but also the mind.

After this, it was just coordinating with the SA for delivery and we took loan from SBI and also got a good exchange bonus of 20000 for our WagonR, along with a good valuation for the car. The loan was sanctioned in one day and it seemed everything would be perfect, so perfect in fact that we even agreed to give the WagonR up before taking delivery of the Punch, which was the stupidest decision I've taken, and then, it all started to unravel a little.

The invoice which was supposed to come the same day as the loan was disbursed, came after two days, after a dozen follow-ups. The PDI which was supposed to happen on Monday, that was the true test of patience. The SA reassured that he would arrange for me to do the PDI on Monday morning, then it changed to evening, then Tuesday morning, then evening, and it went on like that till Thursday. It was extremely frustrating and when I talked to his manager, he spoke to me as if he was doing me a favour by allowing us to do PDI, very very rude man. Finally, I put my foot down and told him I will come to the stockyard on Thursday, and by the time I got there, everything was setup. But the PDI was smooth, and the SA also let me drive the car a little, and I could check the regen as well as the drive modes. Then we took delivery a few days later on an auspicious date, and that went without any hiccups, and there was a small cake cutting and it was a good experience.

I then learnt that the SA himself had been frustrated by the stockyard guys who kept on missing deadlines he gave them, and he was just trying to be nice and arrange the PDI for us at the showroom so that we didn't need to take the trouble to come to the stockyard, also never lost his temper with us once even when we got very frustrated with them missing deadlines. Overall, it was not a bad experience, I could do a very thorough PDI, and also the delivery process was smooth. I also don't blame him entirely for the PDI thing, which could have been avoided if I had just assured him I'd do it at the stockyard.

What I feel is that while the SAs of Tata dealers may not have as much knowledge or be as dynamic as say those from Hyundai or Maruti, who know their car's features really well, after interacting with quite a bit of the sales staff at Key Motors, I found that most of them were honest, young people who are trying to do their best. But their management is arrogant and their stockyard staff are still stuck in the same lethargic days as when they used to sell 10k cars a month. While I wouldn't recommend anyone to go here with full confidence, I would say that it is manageable provided you keep your expectations a bit low and can deal with a few delays.