Bookings for the world’s cheapest car Tata Nano, failed to live up to hype. Tata recorded 2.03 Lakh (203,000) bookings till date, which equates to one-third of the total number of forms issued and is way less than the company’s expectation of half a million bookings. Nevertheless, Tata Motors has managed to get richer by Rs.2500 Crores ($0.5 Billion) in a very short span of time.
With these bookings and especially the money, the company hopes to refinance a few debts and keep the Nano production line engaged till mid 2011. Tata’s Pantnagar plant in UP will produce around 50,000 units/yr while the new plant at Sanand in Gujarat, will boast a production capacity of 2.5 lakh units/yr, when it goes online in 2010.
Unusual pattern in bookings
According to Tata Motors, the top-end variant LX has been the customers’ favorite. The base version accounted for 20% of the bookings, the mid-level CX variant at 30% while the remaining 50% was swept by the top-end LX variant.
Prospective owners to be selected by lot
100,000 persons would be chosen from among the applicants through a computerised random selection procedure, and the announcement of their names will be made by June 2009. Deliveries will start in July 2009 and is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2010.
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- Official- Tata Nano to be launched on March 23; Bookings from April second week
- Tata Motors sell 500,000 Nano forms; earns $3 million thus far
- Tata Nano Launched at 4:30 PM IST in Mumbai
