Tata Nano fever continues as official countdown of Nano booking started

Tata Motors started accepting its booking form. The last day of submission is April 25, 2009. On the same day, the company sent 400 Nano cars in various showrooms around India. A Tata Motors spokesperson said that the booking had been very encouraging but did not disclose any specific figure.

From April 1, 2009, Tata started selling the booking forms of its Tata Nano car. Tata Motor Finance, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, has become one-stop information center for the booking of Tata Nano. Tata is also selling its Tata Nano booking forms from its fashion retail outlets, Westside and electronics retail outlets, Croma. Interested buyers can also get the booking form from the official website of Tata Nano. Already, the website received 20 million hits and around three hundred thousand visitors walked into various showrooms to see the cheapest car of the world.

In the state of Uttarakhand in Northern India, Tata Nano booking form was launched in April 9, 2009 and there was a large crowd of interested buyers. Already 2000 forms have been sold in Dehradun. Tata Nano will be rolled out from the Tata manufacturing plant in Pantnagar Uttarakhand. In the first phase of production, Tata Motors will produce 100,000 cars and they will be allocated to the customers for the next three weeks.

Tata Motors will start delivering Tata Nano from July but before the car is delivered to the owner, they would have to pay large amount of money. Interested buyers would have to buy the booking form for Rs. 300. Then they would have to pay Rs. 95,000 booking fee for the base model, Tata Nano and Rs. 1,40,000 for the luxury model.

Tough times for the Indian two-wheeler industry:

Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Motors has high hopes with Tata Nano. He said that the idea of the car came to his mind and when he saw the cravings of low-cost two wheelers among the Indians. Tata believes that Tata Nano would shift Indian people’s interest from buying motorcycle. Does this mean, the two-wheeler industry of India is at stake? Well, there is a good possibility. In the past, a man with Rs. 100,000 would never thought of buying a car. He would buy a motor cycle. Now, he would go for a car. Same goes for a person who has Rs. 200,000. Now, these people can think of buying a car. However, there are many people for who Rs. 100,000 is still too much. In 50,000 or below, he/she could buy a motor cycle but not a car. Currently, one people in one thousand owns a car in India. Surely, Tata Nano will change the ratio but two-wheelers would not become obsolete. Moreover, India is facing economic crisis. So, many people will try to save as much money as possible.


Will Nano change Tata’s fortune?

I already wrote few posts on Tata Motors and its challenges. Tata is now in serious crisis. India has been affected by the worldwide economic downturn and Tata is also affected. Tata is the largest automobile producer in India at present. In 2008, the company bought Jaguar and Landrover. To buy these two brands, Tata borrowed huge amount of money. Now, the company is under financial pressure. It is incurring huge losses as sales of trucks and buses went down significantly in India which is its core business. An analysts commented that even if Tata becomes successful with Tata Nano, it would only make up a small portion of its overall profit.

Still, Tata Nano is a major milestone in Tata Motors’ history. For the first time, there is a car made for the mass and thousands of people are gathering up to buy the Nano. Small or big, it is going to be a great achievement for Tata Motors.