BHPian luffy_op recently shared this with other enthusiasts:Punch EV, A Trip covering 3 states, KA-KL-TN, total distance of 1615kmThough this was not the first time we planned a trip on the Punch, we had an even longer one before spanning 2700+ km from Mysore -> Shirdi -> Mysore which has already been captured in the forum. Now coming back, what started of as a 3 day trip for the long weekend, became a 6 day temple run across Kerala and Tamil Nadu with 5 people and full load of luggage! When we finalized the places to visit, I still wanted to see how the charging situation is going to be, would it be feasible or should we just go back to our dear old i20 but all it took was a single glance in PlugShare for all my worries about charging to go out the window! Though I did spend some time planning on PlugShare the route and the stops for charging breaks, it got changed a bit when we decided to change the plans on day 2, more on this later. The initial plan was to start from Mysore and go as follows:Day 1 Isha CoimbatoreDay 2 Thrissur (peringottukara Temple, vadakkunathan temple), GuruvayurDay 3 kollam beach, light houseDay 4 Jatayu city centre, Trivandrum (Padmanabha swamy temple), KanyakumariDay 5 Kanyakumari Ferry, PalaniDay 6 Palani temple, return to MysoreBut what actually happened was we ended up skipping Kollam and went directly to Jatayu and halted in Trivandrum. The actual route we took Charging Stops Some interesting metrics:Average DC charging time: ~34mAverage AC charging time: ~2h 8mTotal cost on charging: ~Rs. 5200Most of the DC charging stops were aligned with our breakfast/ lunch/ Tea breaks and AC charging was at places we were anyways going to spend couple of hours like Isha/ Kanykumari/ Palani, so we did not feel that we spent more time just on charging as everything got neatly integrated, yay me for managing to plan and pull this off with 4 middle aged people in tow and not annoying them with longer breaks or unnecessary ones. The luggage space was good enough for 5 people for almost a week of travel! Total distance covered and some more useful metrics from Tata iRA App: Captured the snippet of the Energy consumption while climbing the Dhimbam, the AEC really shoots up on inclines, so always plan a good buffer! Having completed over 42k km in just over 1yr, I can safely say that I am having a ton of fun and saving a lot on fuel expense which makes it even more awesome! Some of the Pros and Cons which I’ve observed in my experience till now: Pros:Even after 42k + km, drives like new and everything just works!Ease of living with this pocket rocket in metro cities.Driving and handling really inspires confidence on all roads, planted when pushing through a corner.AC is very goodConsistent range, SOH is at 97% when last checked at around 38k km.Rear seats are comfortable, no complaints till now.Front seats are great, lot of support and them being ventilated is icing on the cake.Infotainment is pretty smooth, no glitches.Cons:Basic misses on a car costing 14+ lakhs:No grab rail for the front passenger.No roof light for the rear passengers.Use of hard plastics on all touch points, and even the hand rest which is leather wrapped has almost 0 padding.No rear AC/ blower and no rear charging points.Some not so basic stuff:The Phy-digital console, absolutely hate this, not at all intuitive to use, having to take my eyes off the road for even a basic thing like switching on fog lights/ turning hazard lights, very bad design, I have had accidently opened the boot many a times try to click the hazard, I do not understand why more manufacturers are moving towards this, it’s clearly a safety issue, hope there are good regulations to restrict this soon.Suspension squeaks (though it is going to be getting replaced under warranty)I end up using the regen paddle shifters so much, sometimes they do not change as quickly or even miss, this happens 1-2/10 times under fast clicks, hope it can be more accurate.Headlight throw is lacking in dark and rains.Having to rely on the Tata iRA App to set something basic like the charge limit is annoying.The 2025 Punch EV is coming with faster charging rates of upto 45kwhr, while mine maxes out at 27, Tata has not confirmed if this will be passed on to older customers, which really annoys me, this could have cut down my charging times even further, come on Tata, give us old customers the update!Conclusion: Would I recommend a Punch EV? Hell YES! Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.
