Pune: Tata Motors, India’s biggest automaker by revenues, on Wednesday expanded its electric cars by launching its Punch EV SUV to hit an ambitious sales mark of 1 lakh units annually next year.
The Punch EV, priced between Rs 10.99 lakh and Rs 14.49 lakh at pan India showroom, rivals the MG Comet (Rs 7.98 lakh-Rs 9.98 lakh), Citroen eC3 (Rs 11.5 lakh-Rs 12.68 lakh) and Tata’s own Tiago EV that's priced at Rs 8.69 lakh-12.04 lakh.
“We are expanding the EV space in India by introducing new product launches and networks across the country,” Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility told FC in an interview.
He said the brand’s ambitious plan to touch 1 lakh sales mark of Tata EVs by the end of this fiscal year but “we are close to our target”. “Next year, we will cross the 1 lakh EV sales mark,” Srivatsa said, pointing out that in FY22-23 it had sold 54,000 EVs and clocked a market share of 73 per cent.
He said at present Nexon EV, Tigor EV, Tiago EV and Xpres-T EV accounted for 12 to 13 per cent of the total Tata’s passenger vehicle sales.
The Punch EV is Tata Motors second electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), which will expand India’s growing compact SUV segment, selling about 85,000 cars every month. “We are getting into this growing compact EV segment,” Srivatsa pointed out.
The new Punch EV is sold in five variants: Smart, Smart +, Adventure, Empowered and Empowered +. The customers can book Punch EV either through Tata's EV-only dealership or through Tata Motors' official website at a booking amount of Rs 21,000. The deliveries will begin from next month.
The Punch EV is the first EV in Tata Motors' lineup to have Gen 2 Pure EV platform called Acti.EV. As per the company, it is a safer architecture built using high-strength material.
The Tata Punch EV is offered with a choice of two battery options: a 25kWh battery with around 315km of MIDC range and a 35kWh battery with around 421km of MIDc range. There are two charger options available, a 3.3kW wall box charger and a 7.2kW fast charger. The Punch EV supports DC fast charging and can be charged from 10- 80 percent in 56 minutes using a 50kW DC fast charger.
Power is sent to the front wheels via a 122hp, 190Nm motor on the Long-Range variants, and an 81hp, 114Nm motor on the regular variants.
According To Tata Motors, the Long-Range variants can go for 0-100kph in under 9.5 seconds and the EV has a water wading capacity of 350mm.
