Tata Motors misses delivery target of 1 lakh Nanos in 2010

Tata Motors has missed the target of delivering by 2010 its small car Nano to the first 1 lakh customers, who booked through a lottery system as many buyers decided against taking immediate deliveries.

The company had selected 1.55 lakh customers in 2009 for the delivery of the car in two phases. The delivery of the first 1 lakh units were scheduled to be over by 2010.

Since despatch started in July 2009, the company has so far delivered only over 77,000 cars till the end of December 2010 that includes buyers of the second lot and open sales.

"There could be several customers waiting for deliveries, but at their own choice. We had informed everyone that the car was ready," a Tata Motors spokesperson told PTI.

When asked if the rest of people have cancelled bookings, the official said: "There may be some cancellations as well, but some have postponed taking deliveries."

After inaugurating the 2.5 lakh-unit capacity Nano facility at Sanand in Gujarat, the company had started open sales in a few states in August last year.

The company has recently offered pan-India off-the-shelf availability of the Nano, touted as the cheapest car, to boost sales, which recovered from 509 units in November to 5,784 units in December last year.

From a sale of 9,000 units in July, Nano deliveries fell in every following month. Sporadic incidents of the small car catching fire has made it difficult for the company to push Nanos sales, despite a number of assurances through various campaign initiatives.

Tata Motors had earlier asked Nano buyers to bring back their cars to add safety devices free of cost to prevent any fire accident but insisted it was not a recall.

Last month, Tata Motors had announced a four-year or 60,000 kilometre manufacturing warranty on Nano in a bid to woo more customers after it sales plunged.

On production capacity, the spokesperson said the company is "capable of doing several deliveries at the same time", but declined to share details.

Forced to shift from its original plant at Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat, Tata Motors had decided to take bookings of the Nano in April 2009 through a lottery system due to production constraints.

It had said the first one lakh units are price-protected at the announced price of Rs 1.23 lakh-Rs 1.72 (ex-showroom, Delhi).

The retainees of the draw were offered the car with an increase of 3-4 per cent, which translated into a hike ranging between Rs 3,700 and Rs 6,894 (on ex-showroom, Delhi prices).

At present, Nano is sold between Rs 1.38 lakh and Rs 1.89 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).