Mohan Savarkar, Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited, with Pramod Choudhary, Vice President, Operations, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited, at the Six Lakh Punch roll out celebration event Credits: Tata Motors

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Tata Motors Ltd

Homegrown carmaker Tata Motors announced on Thursday that its compact SUV, the Punch, has surpassed the six-lakh production milestone in under four years since its launch in October 2021. The car was also the highest-selling car in India in CY24.

According to data compiled by the carmaker, the Tata Punch has successfully carved out a niche among first-time car buyers, with 70% of Punch ICE owners being first-time car buyers. Another demographic that the Punch has been able to resonate with is women, with 25% Punch.ev—the retrofitted electric iteration of the Punch—owners being women. The Punch’s appeal is even greater in the hinterlands than in the metropolitan cities, with 42% of the sales coming from Tier-2, 34% coming from Tier-3, and 24% coming from Tier-1 cities. “Punch’s appeal cuts across India’s urban and rural landscapes, proving its versatility in diverse terrains and lifestyles,” Tata Motors said in a statement.

Credits: Tata Motors

The success that Tata Motors has had with the Punch epitomises the ongoing shift in consumer preference towards utility vehicles—predominantly SUVs, with the rest being MPVs—and consumers’ preference for premium models. According to the data released by the industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), SUVs now constitute 66% of the total sales mix, even as the overall passenger vehicles market has remained tepid. Overall sales in the April–June quarter declined by 1.4% year-over-year, primarily due to lower sales in the latter part of the quarter, but still managed to sell a million vehicles in the first quarter for the second time in a row.

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Demand for small cars and sedans fell sharply by 11.2% year-over-year, indicating that they have lost appeal to car buyers. SUVs, on the other hand, grew 3.8% year-on-year, showing comparative resilience even as sentiments remain muted. According to Shailesh Chandra, president, SIAM, who is also the MD of the passenger vehicles segment of Tata Motors, retail registrations were marginally better in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year. “Overall sentiments across categories have remained subdued so far, even as the industry continues to navigate supply-side challenges. With the upcoming festival season coupled with the benefits of RBI repo rate cuts, we expect consumer sentiments to improve,” Chandra added.