Tata Punch EV City Long Term Report: The Good And The Bad

Introduction

The Tata Punch EV's top-spec Empowered plus long-range variant has been in our long-term fleet for almost three months now. After a detailed introduction report, we’ve now attempted to address our first question in this new report - how useful would it be while commuting? While we have an in-depth answer to this given the daily drive comprising city runabouts, we also bring out the good and not-so-good things about the EV.

What's good

Fits in tight spots -The Punch EV carries forward the ICE version’s traits including a compact footprint. So the best thing is I can take it anywhere even where I used to prefer to take a scooter/bike. It easily navigates through narrow bylanes and fits in tight parking spots making driving hassle-free in space-deprived city streets like Mumbai.

Sport mode - The little car makes things feel extremely fast in sport mode. If you're a little aggressive with throttle inputs, the front tyres spin quickly to lose grip. So if it's even a little wet or damp there's wheel spin while accelerating or going ahead with a little screeching noise every time. It's like a little rhino who is constantly ready to charge. It sprints ahead with zest and that makes it difficult getting back to the conventional driving settings for the convenience it provides to get ahead of the traffic quickly.

Auto hold and descent control - The auto hold feature is nice as it’s not timed for like 3-5 seconds as in many cars, but here anchors the vehicle till there's some accelerator input to go ahead. This along with hill-hold helps in traffic and slopes to move the car slowly. Moreover, descent control also comes in handy where you can limit the speed while coming down a slope or a multi-level parking area.

Under the hood - The frunk is always additional space, and that's the USP of an EV. Here, it nicely integrates the charging cable and extender bag. The wiper fluid inlet has access under the hood, accommodates more than two litres, and comes with a small filter on top which is good to have.

Ventilated seats - Door closed, seat belt on, and ventilation on! Now that's how habitual I've got to these ventilated seats for the comfort they provide in this hot climate of ours. Even in the evenings, the fan speed is low, but I've got so used to this feature that its absence is felt in any other car without it.

What’s not so good

Slow charging - The charging speed at 3.3kW (AC) is said to be good for the battery in the long run but it’s too slow to try anyone's patience. And since it takes so much time, it’s best suited for overnight charging. Like for example, 35 per cent to 100 per cent took 10 hours which is okay at your home location but otherwise feels like forever. For even a top-up from 85-100 per cent, we observed it took 2.5 hours and 80-100 per cent took three hours.

Driving range - With specs of a 35kWh battery for a long-range version and 421km of claimed driving range, the Punch EV seems promising. But unfortunately, it isn't, as it delivered only 61 per cent (259km) of the range in the real world. Moreover, that's down to 0 per cent which no owner will ever try. So, 200km of true driving range is something that one can expect without having range anxiety to set in. One will have to calculate and plan charging unless one has a habit of topping up overnight.

What's next

We will continue to use the Tata Punch EV to run errands while also planning a long excursion. So, we'll find out more about it while looking for the answer to whether it will cause hassle on a long trip.