Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, has been conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Law for his role in producing the world's cheapest car Nano.
Tata Motors' plans to roll out the first of its Rs 1-lakh (Rs 100,000) small car, the Nano, from Uttarakhand, were boosted today after a high-powered state government committee under Chief Minister B C Khanduri allotted it nearly 45 acres of land to expand the Pantnagar unit.
The partners have, thus, solved the tricky issue of pricing, which has been widely speculated as the reason for the delay in the project announced in 2008.
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.
'The launch of the vehicle was successful beyond expectation'.
India's largest automotive group said it had received 203,000 pre-paid orders worth Rs25bn ($507m) for the Nano, the world's cheapest car, which it put on sale for a 16-day booking period which ended on April 25.
Tata Motors, which suspended work at the Nano plant in West Bengal's Singur in view of continued confrontation at the site early this month, has held talks with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over relocating the facility to the state.
In 2013-14, Tata Motors produced 21,358 Nano models against the plant capacity of 250,000 vehicles.
The entry level car, brainchild of Ratan Tata who envisaged giving a safer and affordable alternative to families riding on two-wheelers, received lacklustre response from the Indian consumer. Tata Motors to bid adieu to Nano from April 2020.
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).
One of the challenges on diesel engine is refinement.
In 2006-07, TCS had employed 7,000 people in the eastern states.
Minutes after reports emanating from West Bengal indicated that the Singur impasse had finally come to an end with Tata Motors 'agreeing to give land,' the Tatas have expressed distress at the 'limited clarity on the outcome of the discussions between the state government of West Bengal and the representatives of the agitators in Singur.
Tata Motors will launch a diesel-powered version of its ultra-cheap Nano by the end of March 2014, its managing director said, hoping to kick-start demand for the model after years of disappointing sales.
Tata Motors on Tuesday said it will ramp-up capacity at its Sanand (in Gujarat) facility that manufactures its low-cost car, Nano, to over 20,000 units per month and 2.5-lakh units annually by this fiscal.
Tata Motors on Friday said it will hike the prices of its passenger vehicles, excluding the Nano, by up to Rs 36,000 from April 1, to offset rising input costs.
"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."
Tata Motors have launched the Nano Twist in Mumbai. The Nano Twist, is the power steering variant of the Nano.
Company officials hope that a slew of recent measures will help revive sagging volumes.
Tata Motors on Wednesday inaugurated the world's cheapest car, the Nano's, manufacturing facility here, nearly two years after it was forced to shift the plant out of West Bengal over a land row.
Industrialists say they were bowled over by the West Bengal chief minister's 'charm and simplicity'.
Now Delhi-based Sona Koyo, which is supplying steering systems for the Nano, and Minda Group, which supplies electrical switches, have confirmed that they and other component suppliers have suggested a price rise to Tata Motors.
Stung by dwindling sales of the Nano, the world's cheapest car, Tata Motors has embarked on a nationwide campaign to promote and market it.
The Moselle Development Agency is the key body in France in search for international investors.
We call it Nano, they don't have to, says vice-chairman Ravi Kant
'What did we get out of this agitation? Nothing... Now we feel it was all a mistake. We have no work, and our land has turned infertile. We are living in abject poverty'
Five years after his promise to build a people's car, Ratan Tata will hand over the key of his dream project--the Nano- to its first customer on Friday.
In enlightened countries the world over, public transport is encouraged, subsidised and given top priority in various ways by policy guidelines. In India there are no such policies.
It was late last year when Tata Motors announced that it would set up the first plant for producing the Rs 1-lakh car at Gujarat's Sanand rather than Karnataka's Dharwad, among other places.
''The meeting between the state government and the Tata Motors officials will be held on September 28,'' Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb told reporters at the state secretariat. The meeting will take place amidst speculation that Tata Motors is preparing to pull out from Singur due to continued agitation by Trinamool Congress-led opposition demanding return of 400 acres of land to 'unwilling' farmers.
Nano remains a cautionary tale of misplaced ambitions and a drag on profit.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
This is the safest Nano Tata has ever put into production.
Higher price tag and soaring fuel costs have swayed buyers away from the ultra compact car over the months.
The land taken by Tata Motors at Singur for the erstwhile Nano car factory, and by the many companies who invested there to be vendors to the project, isn't set to change hands anytime soon.Tata and the vendors both say they plan to hold on to the lease titles, even as Trinamool Congress chief and Union railway minister Mamata Banerjee and the West Bengal government continue with their political posturing over a plan for a rail coach factory at the location.
Tata Motors, India's largest auto maker, will introduce its small car Nano--considered the world's cheapest--in Nigeria within next 18 months, ahead of its planned launch in Europe.
After Rs 1-lakh people's car Nano, the Tatas have unveiled a low-cost realty project which offers a house for less than Rs 4 lakh.
After Rs 1-lakh people's car Nano, the Tatas on Wednesday unveiled a low-cost realty project which offers a house for less than Rs 4 lakh.Tata Housing, the real estate development arm of the Tatas, will build one-room-kitchen flats for just Rs 3.91 lakh in a township being developed at Boisar, 100 km from Mumbai.
Tata Motors, currently produces Nano from its plants at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand and Sanand in Gujarat.
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'.
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