Tata Motors’ second compact SUV, which reached the 600,000-unit milestone ahead of the Nexon, had a weak CY2025. After leading SUV sales in CY2024, the Punch slipped to seventh place last year. Tata Motors is now banking on refreshed styling and the addition of a turbo-petrol engine to help the updated Punch regain ground in CY2026.
13 Jan 2026 | 749 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Tata Motors, which launched the MY2026 facelifted Punch today (January 13), has sold 678,176 units since the model’s first launch on October 21, 2021. The new Punch, revealed on January 5, sports the most comprehensive update for the popular Tata compact SUV including Punch EV-inspired interiors and exterior, a ...
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Tata Motors, which launched the MY2026 facelifted Punch today (January 13), has sold 678,176 units since the model’s first launch on October 21, 2021. The new Punch, revealed on January 5, sports the most comprehensive update for the popular Tata compact SUV including Punch EV-inspired interiors and exterior, a host of new features and also a new turbo-petrol engine for the first time.
Launched four years after the Tata Nexon, the Punch drove past the 600,000 sales milestone in July 2025 – that’s 47 months or just a little less than four years after launch. This pace is much faster than ‘big brother’ Nexon which took 74 months or a little over six years to cross 600,000 sales in the domestic market.
Having identified a ‘white space’ in the Indian PV market, Tata Motors had launched the Punch with an aggressive pricing strategy starting at Rs 549,000 (ex-showroom) in October 2021. The compact SUV is currently available in 33 variants – 18 petrol, 7 CNG and eight electric. After GST 2.0 kicked in, Punch prices have reduced by up to Rs 85,000. The starting price is now Rs 549,000 (ex-showroom Mumba) – the same as at launch over five years ago.
The Punch mini-SUV was positioned as a compelling and affordable model – an entry level SUV that could challenge even premium hatchbacks, tall-boy hatchbacks and also compact sedans in the value-conscious Indian passenger vehicle market. The Punch’s USP has been its compelling SUV attributes such as a high unladen ground clearance, high seating for a commanding view of the road and also a tall stance for easy ingress and egress. Clearly, the strategy seems to have paid off in spades.
The sharp focus on vehicle safety has also paid dividends in a market which was becoming aware of the need to buy high-on-safety passenger cars, SUVs and MPVs. On October 18, 2021, four days before its launch, the Tata Punch aced the Global NCAP crash test with a top five-star rating. In June 2024, the Tata Punch EV also secured a 5-star rating in the Bharat NCAP crash test.
As the data table above depicts, FY2025 with 196,567 units and 16% YoY growth was the Tata Punch’s best fiscal and gave it India’s No. 1 SUV title for the first time since its launch, narrowly beating the Hyundai Creta, which remains India’s best-selling midsize SUV. The Punch was also the No. 1 SUV in CY2024 when it sold 202,031 units.
The Punch has raised the sales bar with every 100,000 units. In August 2022, it became the first SUV in India to achieve the 100,000 wholesales milestone in just 10 months, crossed the 150,000 mark in 15 months after launch, 200,000 in 20 months, 300,000 in 28 months, and 400,000 in June 2024, just 32 months after launch. The run from 400,000 to 500,000 wholesales took a scant six months (or 38 months after launch), reflecting the continuing demand for the compact SUV. The run from half-a-million to the 600,000 milestone, which was surpassed in July 2025, was slower and took 10 months.
In the current fiscal’s first nine months, the Punch has clocked wholesales of an estimated 124,998 units, down 16% YoY (April-December 2024: 148,063 units). Other than the increased competition in the compact SUV segment, one of the key reasons for the slower sales could be that a good number of potential buyers were aware that a new Punch was set to be introduced.
Nevertheless, the Tata Punch remains a top choice for first-time car buyers and nearly 70% of Punch ICE (petrol and CNG) owners are first-time car buyers. Interestingly, the compact SUV has gained strong traction amongst women drivers, which is reflected in the fact that 25% of Punch EV owners are women.
The Tata Punch has had a somewhat forgettable year in CY2025 which delivered Tata Motors’ highest-ever annual sales (578,771 units). It can be surmised that had the Tata Punch fared as well as it did in CY2024, when it was India’s best-selling SUV with 202,031 units, Tata Motors would have driven past the 600,000 milestone with ease.
The Punch sold 173,502 units in CY2025, down 14% YoY (CY2024: 202,031 units). This sees the Tata compact SUV slide to No. 7 position, which is a sharp drop of six ranks after having been India’s No. 1 SUV in CY2024 and No. 3 in CY2023 (150,182 units). Will the new Punch, launched today, give a fresh charge to this Tata model’s sales and outpunch its many rivals? Watch this space for regular sales updates and analyses.
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