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Only 2.3 lakh Nano car booked, 1 million target a pipedream

Tata Motors were hoping to get around one million booking for their much hyped Tata Nano car. Some guessed that given the enthusiasm around the globe and within India, the number of the booking may be substantially higher than what even Tata Motors anticipated.

But the company so far has received only 203,000 bookings for the Nano car.

Tata’s Nano car is giving hope to millions of people across the nation. For millions of people who wanted to have a new car of their own, the dream is to come true very soon. For them it will be time to celebrate.

John Mathew, a small shop owner in New Delhi’s Ansari Road, it will be a dream come true. While talking to KhabreinInfo he says that he had never imagined that he will get a new car for close to Rs one lakh. He owned an old Maruti 800 that he bought for Rs 60,000 a few years back. But the car looked very old and his family was not very comfortable using it. Now he hopes to drive a new Nano very soon. He has already booked the car.

Ram Avtar, a shop owner near Delhi’s Sarai Julena is another person who seems very happy. He says that now that the car is quite cheap he has managed the resources to book the car. He says that it will be a great reward for him if he gets his hands at the promised car within the next few months.

Avtar adds that he had never imagined that the car would be that beautiful. He says that his kids are very happy to have applied for the booking.

Same is the story of Muhammad Nisar, a sales executive in a small company. He says that “using two wheelers is very risky in a city like Delhi where you never know which car or truck may knock you down. Nano car will give me the safety of a car and improved mileage”.

A Tata motors press release says, “The Tata Nano has drawn over 2.03 lakh fully paid bookings amounting to nearly Rs.2,500 crores, in an encouraging response to the car launched on 23rd March”.

The company also said that the Tata nano website received around 30 million hits from the date of its launch. “The Tata Nano website recorded an unprecedented 3 crore (30 million) hits from the date of launch of the car to the closure of the booking period (25th April, 2009), nearly 1 million hits a day. About 14 lakh people walked in to Tata Motors’ Showrooms, Croma and Westside stores across the country to catch a glimpse of the car. A total of 6.10 lakh forms were purchased from the booking centres. 70% of the 2.03 lakh bookings received were financed, while 30% of the applicants booked in cash by paying fully. About 4,000 cash bookings were made online through www.tatanano.com, a first for the auto industry in India. Among the three variants of the car, 20% bookings are for the Nano Standard, 30% for the Nano CX and the remaining 50% for the top-end Nano LX” the press release said.

As announced on 23rd March, the first 100,000 allottees from among the applicants will be chosen through a computerised random selection procedure, and the announcement will be made within 60 days of closure of the booking. Deliveries will start in July 2009, and are expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2010, while all efforts would be made to ramp up production and deliver earlier.

Simultaneously along with the announcement of the first 1 lakh successful allottees, Tata Motors will also announce the allotment of those booking applicants who have expressed their interest in retaining their bookings with the company even if they do not form part of the first 1 lakh allottees. The retainees will earn an interest on their booking amount, effective from that date. The booking amounts of unsuccessful applicants who have not chosen to retain their booking amounts will be refunded at the same time.

Tata Motors places on record its gratitude to the people of India for according such a warm welcome to the Tata Nano, and to all its preferred financiers, dealers and partner companies in making the Tata Nano far more accessible.