March 11, 2010  Print Email | World's cheapest car rolls out
Tata Nano bookings to start from April 9
Posted by Agencies at 12:59 PM GMT on Mar 23, 2009 | MUMBAI (PTI): India's Tata Motors today launched the much-awaited people's car, the Nano, the world's cheapest car priced at around $2,000, a move that could revolutionise travel for millions of Indians.
 According to Tata group chairman Ratan Tata, the company plans to have a US model in the next three years, reports Reuters
Tata told a packed press conference in Mumbai that bookings for the Nano will begin on 9 April and remain open till 23 April.
Each booking form will be sold for 300 rupees ($6) and the booking amount is fixed at Rs 2,999 ($60).
Booking forms will be available in 30,000 locations in 1,000 cities across the country.
The car, with the smallest footprint on-road, will be sold to the first hundred-thousand buyers at a price to be announced later.
The promise that has been made to sell the car at around Rs 100,000 ($1,985) would be kept despite the fact that commodity prices had shot up, Tata said, adding that the fall in commodity prices now may provide some cushion.
The delivery of the first lot of Nano cars will begin in early-July and
The State Bank of India (SBI) would be the qualified banker for collection of bookings in 850 cities, he said. There will be 15 preferred financiers helping out with the booking, and their names would be disclosed in three days.
The vehicle could transform how millions travel in the country and many fear it would cause more traffic jams on the already crowded Indian roads.
The four-door jelly-bean shaped car will cost around Rs 100,000, ex-showroom, for the no-frills version that has a two-cylinder 623 cc, rear-mounted engine delivering a top speed of 105 kilometres per hour.
The demand for the car is huge, say dealers, who've been flooded with queries about the car.
Nano's launch has been delayed by about five months because of limited production capacity - violent protests by farmers over the acquisition of land for the project in the West Bengal state forced the Tatas to shift the Nano plant to Gujarat. The Gujarat plant will be ready in the second half of 2010 and so the Nano is being made at Tata Motors' existing factories, reducing output.
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