Tata Motors recently announced that the much-awaited Tata Nano will be launched at a function in Mumbai on March 23, 2009.
The cars will be on display at Tata Motors dealerships from the first week of April 2009.
Bookings will commence from the second week of April 2009. Since its unveiling on January 10, 2008, Tata Nano has evoked an unprecedented interest in the country,with its Web site having recorded over 30 million hits in the past one year and the creation of over 6,000 interest groups and communities.
Tata Motors is making arrangements for the widest possible network to book the car, so that prospective customers can conveniently avail of booking facilities at their locations, across the length and breadth of India.
The booking process and other details will be announced on March 23, 2009. An Economic Times report had claimed that the booking amount for the worlds cheapest car will be around Rs 70,000, i.e, 70 per cent of the total cost, assuming that Tata Motors manages to keep the price of the much-awaited car at Rs 100,000. Tata Motors dealer however declined any knowledge of the booking amount.
A Business Standard report had earlier said that Tata Motors could start limited commercial production of the Nano from alternate locations so that the first car could roll out towards the end of March 2009 from Pantnagar till the mother plant comes up in Sanand near Ahmedabad.
Bookings can be done at Tata Motors dealers and at select State Bank of India branches.Once you have booked the car, the waiting period is likely to be long because of two primary reasons: huge demand and limited production.
So, how will you get your dream car? Well, allotment of the Nano will be done through a draw of lots, and the lucky ones will get to drive their Nano first.
It is also speculated that the car is likely to attract huge premium, so you can actually make a nice killing were you to sell it as soon as it is allotted to you.
Some of the leading vendors pointed out that it was not viable to have a dedicated plant for the Nano even for volumes like 250,000 cars per annum.A dedicated line at the site with warehousing facilities was the best option to cut down logistics costs.As of now, the vendors confirmed that they would supply the Pune plant for engine components and the
Pantnagar plant from existing facilities across India.While the initial volumes will be as low as 3,000-4,000 cars a month, the company recently indicated to vendors that it planned to produce around 70,000-80,000 cars in fiscal 2009-10. Some of the vendors, while refusing to be identified, said ramping up huge volumes in Pantnagar was not feasible.
