Two years. That’s all Tata Motors has given the fully electric Punch before wheeling out a facelift. In the fast-moving world of small EVs, standing still is not an option. The 2026 Tata Punch EV goes beyond a nip and tuck, bringing a larger battery, quicker charging, and a finance trick designed to make the sticker price look far friendlier.

Starting with the exterior, the Punch EV gains a redesigned face with a cleaner bumper, though the split headlights have been carried over. It also benefits from new 16-inch alloy wheels and full-width taillights that mirror the recently facelifted ICE-powered Punch.

More: Land Rover’s Owner Built A Baby Land Rover For Less Than A Bespoke Paint Job

The interior is largely unchanged. Higher trims pack dual 10.25-inch displays, wireless charging, ventilated seats, a voice-activated sunroof, and a 360-degree camera. Six airbags are standard across the range, although the base car makes do without an infotainment screen.

More Punch And Longer Range

More important changes hide under the skin. The Punch EV benefits from larger battery packs with capacities of 30 kWh and 40 kWh, each up by 5 kWh.

Tata claims a real-world range of up to 355 km (221 miles), which is 75 km (47 miles) more than before. Charging gets a lift too. The updated Punch EV now supports a 65 kW DC fast charger, up from 50 kW, cutting the 20-80 percent top-up time to 26 minutes.

There’s a modest bump in output as well. Power rises by 6 hp (5 kW). The Medium-Range version makes 85 hp (65 kW), while the Long Range variant produces 127 hp (95 kW). Tata says the latter hits 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 9 seconds, trimming 0.5 seconds from the previous figure.

The Price Hack

Here’s where things get interesting. Despite the added kit, Tata has lowered the entry price. The attention-grabbing ₹6.49 lakh ($7,150) starting figure comes via a BaaS (battery as service) scheme. You buy the car, but lease the battery separately at ₹2.6 per km ($0.029 per mile).

More: JLR’s Parent Company Made An Electric SUV With Drift Mode For Just $25K

Prefer to own the lot outright? Prices then range from ₹9.69 lakh ($10,700) to ₹12.59 lakh ($13,900), depending on specification. Even so, that undercuts the pre-facelift model, which makes the updated Punch EV look like stronger value.

At 12,000 km a year, the battery lease works out to ₹31,200 (about $348). Drive 15,000 km and it rises to ₹39,000 (about $435) annually. Over five years at that higher mileage, you would pay ₹1.95 lakh (around $2,175). Add that to the ₹6.49 lakh ($7,150) purchase price and the total comes to roughly ₹8.44 lakh (about $9,325), still below the ₹9.69 lakh ($10,700) entry point of the version that includes the battery. The more you drive, the smaller the gap becomes.

The ICE-powered Tata Punch, meanwhile, ranges from Rs. 5.59 Lakh ($6,200) to Rs. 10.54 Lakh ($11,700).

India has long guarded its domestic car industry with near-impenetrable tariffs, making foreign vehicles a rare sight on its roads unless built locally. That’s about to change.The country is now getting ready to lower those duties on European Union cars, dropping them from a steep 110 percent to 40 percent.

Final terms of the trade agreement between India and the EU will be outlined later this week, but the current proposal outlines that tariffs on EU-made combustion-engine cars will fall to 40 percent for up to 200,000 units annually. Over time, that figure is expected to drop even further, eventually settling at 10 percent.

Read: India’s New Renault Duster Looks Like A Rich Man’s Dacia Duster

In order to protect local firms like Mahinda & Mahindra as well as Tata Motors, battery-electric vehicles would be excluded from the tariff cuts for the first five years. After that, European-made BEVs will also qualify for the reduced tariff structure.

Only cars priced above €15,000 (roughly $17,700) would be eligible for the reduction, a threshold designed to limit direct competition with mass-market offerings from firms such as Maruti Suzuki. These models dominate India’s affordable car segment and are critical to local industry stability.

According to Reuters, the deal is still under negotiation, with finer details yet to be finalized. Certain provisions remain subject to revision before the full announcement is made.

A Massive Market, Ripe for Growth

India now ranks as the third-largest new car market in the world, trailing only the United States and China. Yet European brands currently hold less than a 4 percent share of annual sales, positioning India as a key target for future expansion. Around 4.4 million new vehicles were sold in the country last year, with forecasts suggesting that number could climb to 6 million by 2030.

While the trade pact is expected to give EU carmakers a clearer path into the Indian market, it could also make things easier for Indian textile and jewellery exports. Those goods currently face US tariffs as high as 50 percent, and access to a new market could help take some pressure off.