Tata's passenger car brands currently include Indica, Indigo, Sumo and Safari and would be joined by Nano before the year-end.
In a public announcement on Wednesday inviting applications from prospective dealers, the company said this would maximize their "opportunities, even as Tata Motors constantly expands its portfolio of passenger vehicle products and services, including the recently unveiled people's car, the Tata Nano".
While the applications have already been invited for dealerships in Delhi and adjoining Ghaziabad, the company officials said that similar exercise is also being carried out in other parts of the country, wherever there is a need for expansion.
Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had unveiled Nano in January this year.
The first lot of Nano cars is expected to come out of the factory in Singur, West Bengal, by September-October. On Tuesday, West Bengal's Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said the first batch of Nano would roll out as scheduled before the Durga Puja.
However, the Nano brand so far does not find a mention in the available passenger car dealership application forms, which ask applicants to give their five-year sales and service estimates for six brands -- Indica, Indigo, Indigo-Marina, Safari, Sumo and Spacio.
According to the application form, the minimum net worth for any entity operating a dealership is Rs 50 lakh.
"India is on a fast growth trajectory for the car market and is expected to continue this pace through out the next decade. With a turnover of over Rs 32,000 crore (Rs 320 billion), Tata Motors is already India's largest automobile company.
"Tata Passenger Car brands like the Indica, Indigo, Sumo and the Safari have earned the trust of over a million customers -- and the number is growing with each passing year," the public announcement said.
At the company's AGM last month, Ratan Tata said that demand for Nano was expected to exceed the supply. The Singur plant would have an initial capacity of 250,000 units, which could be scaled up to 350,000 units.
Noting that the company's Nano plant in Singur, West Bengal, was expected to come into operation in the last quarter of 2008, Tata said that manufacturing facilities would be expanded to meet domestic and global demand in the future.
Tata also said that the company is working on new variants of Nano to overcome challenges posed by high fuel prices, which could negatively impact vehicle sales.
"New variants of the Nano are also currently under development to meet the new environmental and fuel price challenges, as also the market requirement of several international markets," he said.
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