Tata Nano customers Get allotment letters soon say'sTata Motors

A lakh Tata Nano customers, most of them from small towns, will begin getting their allotment letters this week. Over 70% of the 2.03-lakh bookings have come from these towns.

Tata Motors, which closed bookings for the Nano on April 25, is expected to start delivering the car by early-July and complete the process by the last quarter of 2010.

“Tata Motors will announce the first 100,000 allotments for the Nano within 60 days of the closure of bookings on April 25, 2009,” said a company spokesperson.

The company announced earlier that one lakh customers would be selected through a computerised random selection procedure, with the remaining — numbering just over a lakh — being given the option of retaining the booking.

The company will also announce the allotment to these 1.03 lakh applicants, who will get the Nano at a higher price, and earn interest on their booking amount with effect from July.

At the time of the Nano launch in March, the company had said only one lakh customers will get the car “at the currently announced price”.

Among the three variants of the Nano car, the base version accounted for 20% of the bookings, followed by the CX variant at 30% and the remaining 50% for the top-end LX variant. “The Tata Nano is unlikely to contribute significantly to Tata Motors’ revenues in 2009-10 as the initial volumes are low. However, as the booking amount is higher for the top-end variant, the margins will be better. A lot will depend on product performance and how
fast the Sanand capacity comes up,” said an analyst from a Mumbai-based brokerage.

The company, which is currently manufacturing the Nano from its interim facility at Pantnagar, has a capacity to manufacture 50,000 cars per annum, which it plans to raise to 2.5 lakh units once its new plant at Sanand in Gujarat starts in December.

Tata Motors had a slew of car launches lined up this year. The company is also understood to be gearing up to launch its premium luxury cars — the Jaguar Land Rover on June 28 and the new Indigo in a few months’ time.