Nano vendors say if all-India bookings cross 500,000, Tata Motors may have to explore the option of having a satellite plant to its present mother factory at Sanand near Ahmedabad. Many who had taken up space at the vendor park in Singur, the centre of the main dispute with the give-us-our-land-back agitationists led by the opposition Trinamool Congress, are hanging on in this hope.
India's first woman photographer Homai Vyarawalla, who is eagerly waiting to drive a Nano after she parted with her 55-year-old Fiat, has been offered the first 'people's car' by a Tata Motors dealer in Vadodara.
Within 15 days of opening the registration process for Nano, its Rs 1 lakh car, Tata Motors has sold nearly 5,00,000 application forms, raking in Rs 15 crore (at Rs 300 each). Distributors associated with the Nano bookings said most of the forms were likely to translate into bookings.
Zahir Haq lost his farmland to the Nano factory, but still applied for a car, when bookings for the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car opened at Singur on April 9. And he is not alone: an appreciable number of Singur residents booked the Nano through the bank branches in the area, with the State Bank of India branch as the nodal point.
Bookings for Tata Motors' much-waited small car 'Nano' started across the country on Thursday and will continue till April 25.
"The amount payable to the company at the time of booking is Rs 95,000, and the bank would lend this money to the applicant at a less than 10 per cent interest," said S K Goel, chairman and managing director of UCO Bank. He said the scheme offered by UCO was different from that of the State Bank of India, in the sense that UCO would lend any amount less than Rs 95,000 to the customer depending on their need.
"I will not ride in the Nano which has been manufactured with the people's blood," said Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee whose party has been blamed for the shifting of Tata's small car factory from West Bengal.
Because of its 'low' price tag, many customers opting to buy a used car may plump for a new Nano, though it comes comparatively with lesser cubic capacity, R Srivatsan president of MyTVS, part of the TVS Group engaged in selling used cars told PTI.
While the Nano is priced at Rs 1.12 lakh, Bajaj Auto's RE petrol variant costs about Rs 90,000, while its diesel variant is pegged at Rs 1.2 lakh. Analysts also say Bajaj can drop prices without any problem. "Bajaj Auto has been in the three-wheeler segment for 60 years. Which means their plants are fully depreciated and they can afford to lower the prices, which other manufacturers can't do," says a top executive from a competing three-wheeler brand.
Typically, about 70 per cent of a car dealer's revenue comes from businesses like servicing, arranging finance, sale of spare parts and accessories, insurance renewals, offering driving lessons, etc. A New Delhi-based dealer said even those ancillary services might not fetch them the margins they earn from servicing other models of Tata Motors like Indica and Indigo.
Rakesh Oberoi, a Tata Motors dealer, said he was getting hundreds of enquiries related to Nano everyday. Tata Motors was given over 950 acres of prime land by the state government at Pantnagar for setting up its manufacturing facility.
The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, on Thursday said that "Tata Nano" may have a marginal impact on the sales of its entry level small car Maruti 800 but ruled out cutting its price.
The country's largest bike maker, Hero Honda, on Thursday said the launch of the Rs 1 lakh car 'Nano' will not have any impact on the two-wheeler industry.
BMC authorities had sent notices to Tata Motors owner Ratan Tata and Parsi Gymkhana officer-bearer P C Cooper for putting up 14 unauthorised hoardings at the venue of the Nano launch. "They paid fine of Rs 112,986 today (Wednesday). The hoardings were removed immediately on Tuesday and a fine was imposed on both the parties under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, for not taking prior permission," said Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Zone I) Kishore Kshirsagar.
A 96-year-old woman, Homai Vyarawala from Vadodara has sold her 55-year-old original Fiat car to buy the Tata Nano.
The bookings for Rs 1 lakh Nano car by the Tata Motors are pouring in from all parts of the country as the sole booking agent SBI said it has distributed lakhs of applications for the world's cheapest car.
The NSE Nifty ended at 2,939, down 7 points. The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,636 stocks traded, 1,395 declined, 1,134 advanced and 107 were unchanged on Tuesday.
The Nano may ultimately be a winner but cannot turn around the company in the near term. For the present, Tata Motors continues to stare at a weak demand for both commercial vehicles as also cars. While CV volumes were lower by 51 per cent y-o-y in January 2009, compared with a fall of 46 per cent y-o-y in the December 2008 quarter, to revert to the mean could take a while given that the downturn in the economy persists.
Tata Motors has opted unconventional mediums like web search, viral marketing and innovative public relations-driven campaigns, where the news in brief is called 'Nano news' in some papers and television advertisement breaks are called 'Nano breaks.' There is also Nano merchandise like T-shirts and key chains. Unlike most car launches, it is not supported by a television campaign, leading to a big saving for the company.
The Nano is developed to meet all the safety features that are applicable for passenger cars in India -- which is not saying much. What we like is the fact that the car will be able to meet the upcoming safety norms too. Current norms stipulate that the cars sold in India should meet norms set for full frontal crash, head impact on steering wheel, body block impact on steering system and seat belt anchorage strength, etc.
Go too fast in reverse and the fuel injection will be cut off! High engine temperature, misfire of the engine, injector failure and over speeding will also enable the chime of a buzzer and will flash a warning light on the dashboard. Before you dismiss this, please do know that the EMS controller is the best in the business. The electronic control unit, sensors and actuators are imported from Bosch, Germany.
'We are bothered about the people's problems. The government forcefully and illegally occupied the land at Singur -- that's why we opposed the forceful occupation of the land,' said firebrand political leader Mamata Banerjee, who forced the Nano project to move out of Singur.
The company has already unveiled the European version -- Nano Europa -- at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month -- which is likely to be fitted with a more powerful engine than the Indian version complying with Euro-V emission norms.
Tata Motors on Monday announced that the Tata Nano Standard version (BS2) will be priced at Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) ex Factory Pantnagar (excluding transportation charges and VAT) thereby delivering on the promise made at the unveiling of the car at the Auto Expo in New Delhi last year on January 10th 2008.
Tata had in the past blamed corporate rivals, without naming them, for putting a spanner in the Nano project leading to land acquisition problems in West Bengal. As a result, the project had to be shifted out of Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat. And this came at a cost. The project originally estimated at Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) now costs over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).
"I am very satisfied and excited about this launch today and the Nano is not for my ego trip... certainly, not an ego trip at all," Ratan Tata said. The price of Rs 1 lakh was announced six years ago when the plan for the Nano was unveiled at an European motor show, he said. He added the fact that the company has kept its promise goes to show that it was not a "gimmick."
Shares of Tata Motors, which surged over eight per cent in morning trade, shed gains to settle up three per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange as the company launched the world's cheapest car 'Nano'.
"If Nano has gone out of West Bengal and is rolling out from Gujarat on Monday, the Opposition in Bengal, the unholy alliance of Trinamool Congress and Congress is responsible," CPI-M Politburo member Brinda Karat told reporters in New Delhi.
As the Nano made its commercial debut, automotive industry experts opined that the Rs 1 lakh wonder from the Tata stable can give an additional 14 million Indian families access to an affordable car, thus creating a niche segment.
Nano, the wheels that millions of Indians have been waiting to drive, on Monday hit the roads and waved goodbye to Tata Motors' enduring image as a truckmaker.
"The scene will be a bit like the Maruti 800 days. Those who are lucky enough to be allotted cars this year can resell it immediately at a premium of Rs 30,000 due to the anticipated shortage," an executive at a Motors dealer said. Supply, Tata Motors dealers say, would be between 40,000 and 50,000 cars, with 100,000 being the most optimistic estimate. This would mean customers may have to wait for up to two years to get delivery if all the bookings are accepted.
The supply of Tata Motors' much-awaited small car, the Nano, is going to be well below the demand for quite some months.
"The inspiration to develop smaller and cheaper apartments comes from the Nano car, which is eliciting a tremendous response. I am sure our project will see a similar response, given the fact that we will come up with such low-cost apartments in metro cities," said R Nagaraju, general manager, corporate planning, Unitech. It plans to launch mid-segment residential projects in metro and suburban cities over the next few months.
Uttarakhand government has written to Tata Motors, asking the auto major to sell a majority of the Nano cars through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution Co Limited, which was recently floated at Pantnagar. Through the sale of the Nano cars and other commercial vehicles which are being manufactured at Pantnagar, the state government is hoping to earn additional tax collections of Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore through a 12 percent VAT.
"Tata Nano is a unique development. The design and development were carried out from scratch to keep the cost of the car at the Rs 1 lakh level," said K Kasturirangan. The Nano project has already secured 37 patents abroad for its path-breaking technology and has become a powerful brand worldwide. "The setting up of the factory also posed socio-political challenges, but the multi-dimensional approach finally helped in the realisation of the project," he added.
Prices of second-hand cars, mainly compact ones, have fallen 15-20% in the last few days. Dealers in the unorganised market fear a further price dip of 10 per cent when delivery starts and the Nano is seen prominently on roads. The Nano, expected to sport an on-road price of Rs 1.25-1.3 lakh for the no-frills, base version, will compete with the compact cars of Hyundai Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and General Motors.
SBI may charge 14 to 14.75% for 5-year loans.
"This is for the first time that a manufacturer will charge for an application form. However, it will be refunded if an application is rejected," said a senior bank executive. Bookings are expected to start by the last week of March. The forms will be collected through various channels. "All the forms and the collected money will be transferred to SBI, where they will be processed, and loans will be given through various banks within 90 days," said a source.
Tata's small car Nano may not be able to enter Europe due to stringent safety and emission norms, leading German luxury carmaker Audi said joining the list of auto players, who are sceptical about the prospects of the world's cheapest car.
The Nano Europa will have a slightly longer wheelbase of 2.28 metres and will be powered by a 3-cylinder all-aluminum gasoline engine with 5-speed automatic transmission and electric power steering.
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