Tata Punch enters compact SUV class

We know the Indian car manufacturer Tata in Europe from the minuscule Nano, a very narrow city car that is supposed to make India mobile. Tata has also sold an all-terrain vehicle in the Netherlands, the Telco, in a distant past. The brand is now launching a new compact crossover in its home country of India: the Punch.

The Punch is a compact SUV that, with its length of 3.83 meters, is positioned a step below the just under 4 meters long Nexon. Passenger cars that are shorter than four meters are extremely important in India, because such cars are eligible for tax benefits, among other things. The Punch is based on Tata’s Agile Light Flexible Advanced (ALFA) platform, a basis that the brand also uses under the Altroz.

punch punch

Tata always supplies the Punch in India with a 1.2, a three-cylinder that the car shares with the already mentioned Altroz, but also with the Tiago and Tigor. That machine delivers a modest 82 hp and 113 Nm, power that is sent to the front wheels via a manual five-speed gearbox or a robotized version of it. The SUV-like looking model for its size has a ground clearance of 19 centimeters and, according to its creators, should also hold up reasonably well next to the asphalt, among other things due to a TractionPro-called traction control system and approach and departure angles of respectively 20, 3 and 37.6 degrees. The Punch’s boot is a decent 319 liters for a car of this size, making it about the same as the larger Hyundai Bayon (321 litres).

Depending on the version chosen, the Punch has things on board such as automatic climate control, a cooled glove compartment and an infotainment system that supports Android Auto and Apple Carplay. On the Indian market, the Punch competes with cars such as the Suzuki Ignis and Renault Kwid, which are also well-known here, although Punch is more of a crossover than those two models. However, the Tata Punch does not come to the Netherlands.