'Small cars should not trade safety for affordability'

Tata Motors has launched an updated version of the Tata Punch at a starting price of ₹5.59 lakh (ex-showroom).

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Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, speaks with Akbar Merchant on how the company sees the Punch going forward, the outlook for the passenger vehicle industry, and Tata Motors’ own positioning across internal combustion, CNG and electric vehicles. Excerpts:

What were you trying to fix with the Punch when you first launched it? How does the facelift build on that?

The biggest compromise in small cars has traditionally been safety, and we wanted to break that with the Punch. The facelift is a continuation of that philosophy. It adds choices and relevance without changing the core proposition. For us, it’s about keeping the car contemporary while staying true to why customers bought into it in the first place.

How should we think about Punch sales from here?