Tata Motors [Get Quote] is expected to get close to a million bookings for the Nano. The bookings for the world's cheapest car began on April 9 and ended April 25. This is more than half the total number of cars produced in the country in 2008 -- 1.83 million.

Tata Motors was, till late on Saturday, collating booking numbers it had received from over 30,000 sale points (which include dealers, banks and retail stores amongst others) from over 1,000 towns and cities. It will announce the final figure only on April 28.

Tata Group insiders said that, till Saturday afternoon, the total bookings could range between 650,000 and 800,000. With more customers likely to join the bandwagon later in the day, the final number could be close to one million.

A Tata Motors spokesperson said: "It is difficult to talk about booking numbers for the Nano at present. Tata Motors will compile all the numbers and will announce it in the next few days."

In spite of the huge bookings, Tata Motors will be able to offer only around 100,000 cars in the next 12 months to customers selected from a computerised draw. The delivery of the car will start from July. According to car dealers, those who get the car can expect a premium of around Rs 30,000 till the novelty factor does not wear away.

If these consumers do not withdraw their bookings, Tata Motors will have enough orders to keep its upcoming factory in Gujarat busy for the next two years even at full capacity (500,000 cars per annum). 

The bookings show that Tata Motors could come close to the production volumes of the country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki.

In 2008, Maruti Suzuki produced 774,000 cars, way ahead of Tata Motors which produced 216,000 cars. But this number could get a big boost once production of the Nano goes on stream.

The Nano factory in Gujarat is expected to get off the ground by the end of this year. The initial capacity of this plant will be 250,000 cars per annum, which will be expanded to 500,000 cars per annum. Once in full throttle, this could bring Tata Motors' car production numbers close to those of Maruti Suzuki.

Tata Motors has already made around Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) from selling over 1 million application forms at Rs 300 apiece for the Nano.

Most bookings have come from Tier II and below cities, and have been done from the branches of the State Bank of India [Get Quote] and other designated banks, termed as 'preferred financiers' by Tata Motors.

An SBI official said the response has been very good across the country, although the full picture should be out in a few days.

One Mumbai dealer said in the afternoon that bookings at his end had touched 342 but could go up to 500 by the end of the day. Another Tata Motors dealer in Kolkata claimed to have taken 800 bookings of the car till Friday and expected the figure to reach 1,000 on Saturday. Tata Motors has 242 dealerships across the country.