Tata Motors says the car which faced short circuiting has been repaired and handed back to the owner in Ahmedabad.
The company has been in discussions with vendors who are moving from Singur to Sanand to support them with mutually acceptable terms, which will be implemented.
Official sources said that top company officials recently met Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri and demanded 35 acres of additional land for expanding the facility. Earlier, the company had sought 55 acres of land at Pantnagar for housing purpose. The government is yet to take a decision in this regard.
Tata Motors, India's third-largest car maker, plans to use the platform of its low-cost small car Nano to build electric and hybrid cars.
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.
There have been reports of fire breaking out in Nano near the steering column of the car from three different places -- Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Delhi.
Even after people rushed to various centres to book the Nano on Saturday, the last official day for doing so, dealers undertook bookings on Sunday and Monday, breaching the time-line set by Tata Motors.
"Nano is like an open canvas for us. We have the option of positioning it on the lines of the (Volkswagen) Beetle or the (BMW) Mini."
Tata Motors, India's largest car maker by revenue, is exploring the possibility of adding more models to the production line at its Sanand plant in Gujarat.
In all, Tata Motors received 206,703 applications for the Nano. It also said that deliveries to the first batch of 100,000 applicants will begin in July and is expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2010. The company is presently manufacturing the Nano at its plant in Uttarakhand; production at the car's mother plant at Sanand, Gujarat, will only start later this year or early next year.
The Indian conglomerate is also studying investments in automobiles, software and hotel businesses, as well as biofuel in South American markets such as Brazil and Argentina.
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.
Big vendors left with smaller amounts as formula for compensation based on despatches.
Meanwhile, pre-construction work has begun at the Nano plant site in Sanand near Ahmedabad. Spread across an area of 1,100 acres of land, the plant will bear an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).
India's most fuel efficient IC-engine car that gives 36 km/kg.
Admitting that Nano has 'wasted an early opportunity' due to teething problems, Tata Group chief Ratan Tata on Thursday said Tata Motors will do everything to undo the tag of 'poor man's car'.
Tata Motors has set up a separate team at its plant in Pune to examine ways to cut manufacturing costs on the Nano, the small car scheduled for an October launch, to bring the ex-showroom price down to the psychological Rs 1 lakh mark, managing director Ravi Kant said.
The company, which unveiled the electric version of the small car -- Tata Nano EV -- would also launch the version in the domestic market. However, no possible timeframe has been fixed for its launch in the home market.
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.
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.
Auto analysts suggest that Tata Motors may not be able to generate more than three to four per cent on net profit margins and five to six per cent on EBIDTA margins on the car. In addition, while production of the model is ramped up, sales will also have to rise in tandem.
Tata Motors went back to the planning room, and the news that emanates from the factories is the Twist, a new Nano avatar that looks fresh
Tata Motors went back to the planning room, and the news that emanates from the factories is the Twist, a new Nano avatar that looks fresh
Tata Motors was, till late on Saturday, collating booking numbers it had received from over 30,000 sale points 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.
The industry minister said the small car project could not come up if 400 acre was returned as demanded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Nirupam Sen, who had discussed the Singur project with Tata in Kolkata on Thursday night, said that the state government wanted to work out a solution and was was open for talks to find out an acceptable solution.
The company said despite the recession in global markets, it has invested over Euro 3 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) in 2009 particularly in developing technologies for the low- priced vehicles to improve fuel efficiency.
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.
Small price difference with Maruti causes customer attrition and back-outs.
With the Nano's sales stuck in a low gear, firm drives hope on product variants and the base of hopefully satisfied customers.
Noting that the company's Nano plant in Singur, West Bengal, was expected to come into operation in the last quarter of 2008, Ratan Tata, in a letter to shareholders in the annual report for 2007-08, said that manufacturing facilities would be expanded to meet domestic and global demand in the future. "New variants of the Nano are also currently under development to meet the new environmental and fuel price challenges".
The Ambassador and Nano plants are in the same district. Now to get the Bajaj Lite
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.
Customers will no longer have to wait for long periods to own the Tata Nano as dealers are now offering almost immediate delivery of the world's cheapest car.
Briefing the media after a three-hour tour at the project site, Ravi Kant said the trial production would commence in June-July and after a month or two, regular production would begin. "Commercial production, that is the real thing, will start in October, around the Durga Puja time," he said.
Like many other low-unit value, fast-moving consumer goods, the Nano can be expected to alter the dynamics of its market like nothing before.
At last, rays of hope have started shining on Singur factory land, which has been lying unutilised since the Tatas decided to shift their Nano factory from there on October 3, 2008, following relentless opposition by Trinamool Congress and its allies against the company's alleged 'illegal' acquisition of farm lands.
Nearly 80 per cent of the buyers opting for the more expensive variants instead of the base-level car which is priced at Rs 1.23 lakh (ex showroom, Delhi). The trend is based on responses from dealers and banks that took bookings in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Kolkata on Thursday. The Nano CX costs Rs 1.48 lakh and the top-end LX Rs 1.72 lakh.
A vendor said that Tata Motors had sent a mail that a meeting with the West Bengal commerce and industry secretary was scheduled for Thursday. Industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen was not available for comment. However, WBIDC's public relations agency said that Sen had not sent any mail to vendors.
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.
Sanand produced only 515 Nanos in January, and sold even less, just around 391 units.
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