TATA Punch

Tata Punch Facelift: Exterior

The new Tata Punch facelift gets a revised front fascia. It now boasts a beefier front bumper, which was relatively flat in the outgoing model. Not only that, but the DRLs have been slimmed down. The headlight has been replaced with more angular ones like the ones found in the Nexon, Curvv and Harrier, aligning the Punch’s design language to that of its bigger siblings. The piano black grille has also been swapped out. The tri-arrow design elements on the lower grille and upper grille have been completely done away with (at least on the exterior) as Tata has incorporated a design with rectangular slats. In addition to that, the lower bumper also gets a bull bar bumper element, giving an illusion of the car’s rugged appeal. Something which is completely new is the front camera that the micro SUV gets as part of its 360-degree camera setup.

On the sides, the outside rear-view mirrors get a piano black treatment as they boast blind spot detection cameras. Not much has changed from the sides as it gets the same black cladding in the lower part of the doors and wheel arches. The silhouette also looks similar to the outgoing model. It carries over the same 16-inch alloy wheels from its mid-life update model; however, the design has changed. Interestingly, the ground clearance of the car has gone up by 6mm from 187mm to 193mm. This, in turn, has increased the Tata Punch’s water wading capacity to 400mm from 350mm.

The rear profile of the car gets rectangular slat elements in the taillight, replacing the tri-arrow design. The Tata Punch’s facelift gets connected LED taillamps, which indicate its close relationship with the Nexon and Altroz. The rear bumper has been revised as well, getting a skid plate and a new bumper design. However, the Tata Punch’s facelift continues to get only two rear parking sensors while the cars priced similarly to the Punch get four rear parking sensors, something I felt should have been improved in the facelift. The position of the rear camera has been changed in the Tata Punch facelift. It has been lowered and integrated into the bumper rather than the underside of the Tata logo, like the outgoing model. Owing to the camera being placed in the centre of the rear bumper, the boot opening button has been slightly shifted to the right to accommodate the camera.

The boot space remains the same at 366L, but with the twin-CNG tanks placed in the boot, it is reduced massively to 210L. In CNG variants, the spare tyre is placed underneath the body to accommodate the CNG tanks.

Overall, it’s a good-looking car, especially in the Caramel and Coorg Cloud colour option, while Cyantific and Bengal Rouge give it more character. However, I feel that the tri-arrow design was central to the Punch’s character and doing away with that leaves the car with less of it.

Tata Punch Facelift: Interior

The Tata Punch facelift’s interior has not changed a whole lot. While there are changes, the layout looks similar to that of the outgoing model. It features a similar button layout when it comes to the door panels. In addition to that, it gets a black and white layered dashboard design, with a tri-arrow design incorporated in the dashboard, much like the pre-facelift model. Moreover, the Tata Punch facelift gets a centre armrest, a 10.24-inch infotainment system, rear AC vents and a single-pane sunroof, which has been carried over from the mid-life update the micro SUV received in 2024.

A few things that have changed are the 7-inch instrument cluster, which is now completely digital. It gets touch-based air conditioner controls carried over from the Punch EV, along with a new Tata twin-spoke steering wheel and an illuminated logo. It gets a new blue and grey dual-tone interior. The seats have been made more comfortable with added bolstering and under-thigh support. The new Tata Punch facelift gets a wireless charger, 360-degree camera, hill-descent control and quick cooling feature, which is useful in summers. CNG models will have a CNG button to switch the car from CNG to petrol mode.

The steering can be adjusted by tilting it. There is no telescopic adjustment. The seat height also has to be adjusted manually. However, the new Punch facelift compromises on its storage capacity, especially in the centre console, because of the armrest. It gets two small-sized cup holders, one of which would not be usable if the armrest is slid to the front. The door bins are big enough to handle storing multiple things, including an umbrella, a one-litre water bottle and a few daily necessities like a sunglasses case or a wallet.

The rear seats also follow suit with the first row, with increased under-thigh support. The rear of the front seats has been scooped out to give the rear-row passengers more leg room. The Tata Punch facelift can accommodate three individuals, but it might be a squeeze. There are pockets at the back of the front seats to store something if you would like to. There is a centre armrest, but it does not have any cupholders. The overall comfort in the Tata Punch’s cabin has not changed as the car continues to be extremely comfortable for long hauls or highway journeys, especially since it has cruise control.

Tata Punch Facelift: Engine Options

The Tata Punch facelift comes with three engine options now: a 1.2L naturally aspirated Revotron engine producing 86.5 hp and 115 Nm of torque, paired with a five-speed manual or a five-speed AMT transmission, a 1.2L i Turbo engine producing 118 hp and 170 Nm of torque, paired with a six-speed manual transmission and a 1.2L Revotron CNG engine producing 72.3 hp and 103 Nm of torque, available with manual and AMT transmission options.

Tata Punch Facelift: Drive Review

We drove the CNG variant with an AMT transmission first. We went for a drive at 7:30 am in Pune, which was relatively quiet. No traffic, no bustling streets, it was very un-Pune-like. But I did enjoy the open stretches of road and the ease of driving the AMT offers with the CNG variant.

The car handles well and has agile steering, making you feel connected to the car. It goes wherever you direct it to. Lane changes at both low and high-speeds along with a relatively short turning radius, make the Tata Punch facelift a very easy-to-drive car, especially in tough city conditions. The suspension setup has been kept on the softer side, which helps it filter the biggest of potholes and provides insulation to the cabin, so you are not bothered by big potholes, which is the case in every city in India.

I drove it across an off-road obstacle course, and the ease with which the Tata Punch facelift handled them was, quite frankly, astonishing. You wouldn’t expect a front-wheel drive car to be able to do what it did. We went through a course which consisted of axle twisters, side incline, rumble strips, log bed, see-saw and hill ascent and descent, along with water wading, vehicle articulation, 90-degree drop, steps, rock bed and a trench, among others, to push the car to its maximum, and I came out rather impressed with what I saw.

Coming back to the city, it handled the traffic and crowded traffic junctions pretty well, thanks to its crawl mode. While the car is pretty easy to drive, the AMT transmission is a little more complex than that. I drove the car in both CNG and Petrol and the difference in performance was noticeable.

CNG Mode

The car in CNG mode had to be driven with a gentle throttle input for it to shift smoothly from one gear to another. Flooring the pedal would create chaos for the car as there would be a good five to six-second delay in response, and then it would shift two gears down, allowing the torque to propel the car forward, which can be problematic, especially when you need to make a quick overtake. While you can take control manually through the gear lever or the paddle shifters, which are new to the Tata Punch facelift, there still remains a lag when shifting manually as well. At certain points in time, I felt that there was more lag while shifting through the paddle shifters rather than the car doing it all on its own in auto mode.

Not only that, but the car took some time to gain momentum, especially on highways. In the city, the car performed well despite the shifts being noticeable. However, take it out on open stretches of road and the Tata Punch facelift will be like a fish out of water.

Petrol Mode

The performance of the Tata Punch facelift changed significantly when it came to just a petrol-powered engine. The car felt more powerful instantly; there was more power at disposal. The CNG variant loses out on the extra 14.2 bhp and 12 Nm of torque, which the petrol engine readily offers. It tackled the city traffic with relative ease as gear shifts were noticeable but smooth since I was driving it with gentle throttle inputs.

The change in power delivery was noticeable when I drove it on the highways. The extra power was readily available, and the five-second lag in CNG mode suddenly came down to three seconds before the power kicked in.

I-Turbo Variant

During the latter half of the day, we got our hands on the 1.2L turbocharged engine-powered Tata Punch, and it really changed my mood. While I was struggling to get up to speed on the highways, this engine completely blew me away with its exhilarating acceleration. The increase of 30 bhp and 55 Nm of torque over the NA petrol engine meant that it didn’t feel underpowered, like the CNG and Petrol variants did. The complaints of the Punch being underpowered had been taken into consideration by Tata, which led to the company fitting the Punch with the Nexon’s petrol engine. The surge of power kicked in at around 3,000 rpm and went all the way up to 6,000 rpm.

The car felt stable at triple-digit speeds and held up pretty well. It was never felt out of its comfort zone, be it in the city or on the highways. The Tata Punch facelift never felt out of control. Being lighter than the Nexon meant it would be faster. The turbocharged petrol option comes mated to a six-speed manual only. The gearbox was hard to use, and you would really have to wrestle with it in order to make gear shifts, even though the clutch is pretty smooth. I felt that Tata Punch i-Turbo’s performance could be maximised if the company fitted it with a torque converter automatic.

I never had back pain while I was driving the car since the seats were comfortable. Operating the infotainment screen was a happy experience since the touchscreen was slick and responded promptly to the inputs I gave. It connected seamlessly to my phone, even if I had stepped out of the car or switched it off. The touch-based climate control is something I’m not a fan of since I had to take my eyes off the road to adjust the AC. Despite the toggle switches to increase or decrease the fan speed and temperature on the Tata Punch facelift, the rest of the functions have to be activated or deactivated by touching the respective functions on the panel, which can be quite distracting.

Overall, I feel that Tata has addressed most of the consumer concerns with the outgoing model. It is a capable micro SUV which can handle traffic, bad roads or even no roads at all. It has come up as a well-rounded product with something for every consumer, whether it be for people who like to go on frequent road trips, performance maniacs or office-going people. The price point makes it even sweeter with the starting ex-showroom price set at ₹5.59 lakh with the range going all the way up to ₹10.54 lakh, offering petrol-CNG, petrol and turbocharged petrol models to choose from.

Words: Saptak Bardhan

(Note to readers: The drive was organised by Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. The views and opinions expressed in the review are solely those of the author.)