Big rush for Nano details but booking figures high's

Pune’s potential buyers set up a huge rush for the Nano, the small car, as booking started on Thursday, said dealers and officials at outlets giving booking forms.

It isn’t clear, however, how many booked the Nano. Most returned after taking details on the price structure and financial schemes.

“All our outlets in the city and those of Das Electricals and Sehgal Autoriders in Pimpri-Chinchwad area have seen a huge rush from the morning. Booking forms are being sold in no time. But most people are arriving without the documents to carry out an actual booking. And people want to know more about various options available for them before they book the car,” said Mandar Tamhane, director, Pratham Automobiles Pvt Ltd.

He said nearly all visitors bought booking forms though no count was made of the exact number of forms sold. “We think the number of bookings will go up in the coming days and we can provide the data once it is ascertained,” he said.

Pandit Automobile had a similar report. “We are getting an overwhelming response. Our entire team is busy attending to customers. We don’t have the exact number right now of how many forms we sold and how many bookings we made. The count can be made only after collecting all data,” said Mukund Kulkarni of Pandit Automobile.

Pratham Automobiles has made booking forms available at nearly 30 outlets at Baner, Kondhawa, Wagholi, Camp, Wakdewadi, Bhandarkar Road, Goldstar Motors (Dapodi), Salunkhe Vihar (Ebony), Chinchwad (Sehgal Autoriders), Chakan (Sehgal Autoriders), Akurdi (Sehgal Autoriders), Narayangaon (Sehgal Autoriders), Kothrud(Dombivali Nagari, Sahakari Bank Ltd.) and Das Electricals.

Forms are also available in retail shops like Croma and Westside. Tata Green Batteries, a brand of Tata AutoComp GY Batteries that supplied batteries to Nano, also joined the bandwagon of outlets providing booking forms.

The company announced on Thursday that booking forms would be available from Thursday at around 200 franchisee outlets across more than 60 cities in the country.

Ravi Gupta, CEO, Tata AutoComp GY Batteries Pvt Ltd, said, “To take our association with the Nano forward, we are offering our customers a special discount of 10 per cent on Tata Green Batteries, on purchase of booking forms for the Nano.”

The discount will be valid for three years from the date of purchase of the booking form from a Tata Green Battery outlet.