Nano is launched, bookings to start in April, First Nano on roads in July

After crossing many hurdles, Nano has finally seen light on 23 MAR 2009. It took the world by storm. Everyone has talked about it. Some even felt that Detroit can learn something from Nano. Well, all that and more is just waiting to happen. Many Indians can now afford a car, which wasn’t possible till yesterday. That is quite a remarkable achievement.

Tata did deliver on the Nano promise. The launch is a commercial launch and the vehicles are not yet available. The bookings will start in April and the first Nano will come on Indian road by July. That is a long wait. But, it is not the wait which is difficult but actually getting your hands around the steering wheel of Nano.

There is a 15-day window for booking the Nano, from April 9 to 25. The application forms will be sold at Rs 300 apiece at over 30,000 locations and in about 1,000 cities through Tata Motors dealerships, SBI branches, other preferred financiers as well as outlets of Westside, Croma, the ‘World of Titan’ and Tata Indicom exclusive stores. Customers can pay the entire booking amount themselves or seek appropriate financing. (source)

Booking a Nano is tougher than getting through the CAT exam and getting it is dumb luck. Getting a car shouldn’t be this difficult but, for a 1 lakh car and given the demand it is only understandable. Did I mention that, the first 1 lakh customers will be chosen by lottery? This also reminds me of the IPO frenzy  we saw in 2006-07.

The price to the customer as everyone expected is not exactly 1 lakh. Mumbai ex-showroom price for a Nano is 1.34 lakh which includes, sales tax, VAT, octroi and transportation charges.

Nano will definitely script a new beginning in Indian auto sector. India’s car penetration (if I can call that) is – 9 out of 1000 people have a car. That is abysmal. Nano might just dent that a bit. Tata Motors stock has jumped and it hopes to clear its credit wows with the fresh money Nano will pour in.

Check out what the media is saying. Reuters (Q&A), Time (10 things you didn’t know about Nano) BusinessWeek (Making the Nano more affordable). WSJ (Tata hopes tiny car is a big hit)

PS 1 : Totally unrelated, but twitter is over capacity. Says – too many tweets. I thought that is what they wanted and now they are complaining about it?

PS 2 : I think there will not be any road tests involved. It is a lottery and if you get it and would like to just test drive then they might say – next. I wonder if you can choose a color?

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Author: Sriram Vadlamani

Sriram Vadlamni is a IT professional and an avid blogger. He blogs about India business at Indianomics.com and you can follow him on twitter @indianomics (Email: sriram.vadlamani@gmail.com)

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Tagged as: application forms, auto-sector, croma, getting your hands, indian auto, ipo frenzy, lakh car, launch vehicles, many hurdles, Nano bookings, Nano Launch, Nano price, Nano test drive, reuters, showroom price, steering wheel, Tata motors, tata-indicom, transportation charges