The Nano, the car billed as the world’s cheapest, will be in automobile showrooms for sale in April, its Indian maker, Tata Motors, announced on Thursday after months of delays.<\/p>\n
The sporty-looking four-door Nano, dubbed the "people’s car", has drawn worldwide attention due to its planned price tag of just 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) for the basic model — cheaper than some laptop computers.<\/p>\n
"The much-awaited Tata Nano will be (formally) launched at a function in Mumbai on March 23," said Debasis Ray, spokesman for Tata Motors, India’s largest vehicle maker and part of the sprawling tea-to-steel Tata Group.<\/p>\n
The cars will be on show at Tata Motors dealerships in the first week of April. Bookings will start in the second week of April.<\/p>\n
The launch "will be a big day for the company", Ray told AFP.<\/p>\n
He said details about pricing and distribution would be announced at the launch, originally targeted for around last October.<\/p>\n
A violent dispute over ownership of farmland at the site in communist-ruled West Bengal state where the Nano was initially due to be built delayed its rollout.<\/p>\n
"I’m very sure there’s latent demand for the Nano. I expect long queues in front of showrooms," said Gaurav Lohia, analyst at K.R. Choksey Shares and Securities.<\/p>\n
The company has already been taking the Nano to religious shrines across the country to seek "divine blessings" for the project, media reports say.<\/p>\n
Secular but Hindu-dominated India is a deeply religious country and business launches are usually timed to coincide with "auspicious days".<\/p>\n
The launch comes as Tata Motors is going through a tough patch with an economic slowdown and tight credit hitting sales.<\/p>\n
The company, which has seen vehicle sales plummet, recently reported its first quarterly loss in seven years.<\/p>\n
Tata Motors was feted last year as an Indian corporate success story with its 2.3-billion-dollar purchase of British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover. But with the global downturn, the purchase has become a financial millstone as sales of prestige cars have tumbled.<\/p>\n
Tata Motors is making arrangements for the widest possible network to book the Nano — "across the length and breadth of India", Ray said.<\/p>\n
The Nano now is due to be assembled in western Gujarat state, one of India’s most industry friendly states.<\/p>\n
But the first Nanos will be rolled out from existing Tata plants in what Tata group chief Ratan Tata has described as a "makeshift kind of operation".<\/p>\n
Only a small number of Nanos are expected to be available at first.<\/p>\n
"It will take a year-and-a-half to get full production on stream" at the Gujarat plant, said analyst Lohia.<\/p>\n
Ratan Tata, who conceived of the ultra-cheap vehicle to get Indians off unsafe motorcycles, said the company’s focus would remain on India.<\/p>\n
He told Germany’s Bild newspaper the company aimed to sell 500,000 to one million vehicles a year at home but added "we also have the American and the European markets in our sights".<\/p>\n
He said a European version of the Nano meeting all European emission and safety standards would be presented at the Geneva Motor Show next month.<\/p>\n
But he said the price of the European version would be much higher — at around 5,000 euros (6,390 dollars).<\/p>\n