150PS Abarth Punto coming in October

Fiat wants to bring some serious sting in its offerings for the Indian market. The 595 Competizione launched today will be Abarth’s flagship model for India but it comes in as a CBU and will do duties of a halo product only – improve brand image and help push other models planned in the future. And the future for the petrolhead from Abarth’s stables looks quite bright. Two models are planned in the near future, the first one will be the Abarth Punto and it will be followed by the Abarth Avventura. While we don’t have any details of the Avventura yet, we can reveal a bit about the Abarth Punto.

The Abarth Punto will be powered by the same 1.4-litre T-Jet motor that powers the Linea, but the company has upped the power considerably to about 150PS. There’s about 200Nm of torque too making it the first hot hatch that one can buy without shredding your bank account. We’re being told that the Abarth Punto will be aggressively priced, say a slight bit more than you would shell out for a Linea T-Jet and that puts the Abarth Punto right up against a Polo TSI. The Punto however will come with a 5-speed manual transmission, appealing to the enthusiast. 

The Abarth Punto gets brake discs all round, stiffer suspension and lower ride height to complement the engine’s sporty character but it’s still not low enough to make it difficult to use in our road conditions. Fiat truly wants the Abarth Punto to appeal to a wide audience. 

There aren’t many changes to the exterior of the Abarth Punto. It’s got contrast orange lining in the grille, orange painted wing mirrors and a new set of Abarth alloy wheels. There is plenty of Abarth branding all around and no Fiat badge anywhere to distance it from the stock Fiat cars. The interior is same as the Punto Evo but the Abarth Punto gets racy steel pedals and the instrument cluster gets new Abarth colour inserts. Seat upholstery too gets matching stitch patterns.