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.
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.
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.
Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India Private Limited, said the company would launch Chevrolet Cruze, its new offering in the Chevrolet Spark segment, by third quarter of its financial year ended December 2009. Slym added, "The car will be priced similar to Chevrolet Spark. As far as the minicar is concerned, we are not competing with Tata Motors' Nano, which is a different segment."
Sanand produced only 515 Nanos in January, and sold even less, just around 391 units.
Names of the 100,000 customers who have been finalised for allotment of the Nano through the computerised procedure were announced by the company last month.
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee gave Singur, the erstwhile site for Tata Motors' Nano that made her popular, a miss.
Nano remains a cautionary tale of misplaced ambitions and a drag on profit.
SBI may charge 14 to 14.75% for 5-year loans.
History will be created in Mumbai on Monday evening when Tata Motors launches the world's least expensive car, Nano -- a car that can redefine personal transportation in modern India.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's emphasis on a rigid land policy has pleased the farming community but not the industry.
Congratulate Tata and the entire Tata Motors team for their incredible achievement.
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 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.
The author tries to separate the hyperbole from reality in the Gujarat model.
Ratan Tata was one of the world's most influential industrialists yet he never appeared on any list of billionaires. He controlled over 30 companies that operated in over 100 countries across six continents yet lived an unpretentious life. Ratan Naval Tata, who died at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday night at the age of 86 years, enjoyed a perhaps unique status -- a corporate titan who was considered a 'secular living saint' with a reputation for decency and integrity.
To lure the automaker, West Bengal seized small farms to give Tata nearly 1,000 acres -- and so far it has rejected compromise proposals.
The company said it has begun intimating customers, who had retained their booking but are not among the first 100,000.
According to the lease agreement between Tata Motors and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, the lessor will have the option to terminate the lease if the land has not been used for three years or more, which will kick-in from October 2011. Tata Motors had pulled out of the Nano project in October 2008.
After deciding to withdraw the Nano project from Singur in West Bengal in October last year, Tata Motors has sought 10 months time from West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation to remove the equipment.
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.
The country's largest lender SBI on Friday said it has been appointed as the sole booking agent for the world's least expensive car, Nano, from the stable of Tatas.
Tata's small car might just have managed to steal the thunder from the annual boat racing festival in Kerala. For a special offer for Onam, Keralites have decided to give oars a rest, and test-drive the Nano instead.
Close on the heels of Tata Motors' announcing a special financing scheme for its small car Nano to perk up sales, the company on Monday announced that the car will be now available in its 874 outlets pan-India.
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.
Farmers are gettong ready for another agitation.
Faced with dwindling sales, Tata Motors has announced a four-year or 60,000 kilometre manufacturing warranty on its small car Nano in a bid to woo more customers.
Many vendors who had lost their investment in Singur, West Bengal, after being forced to abort production there, are yet to decide on relocating to Sanand. Most of these suppliers will address the demand for components from their existing plant locations to meet this year's Nano production needs.
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