The launch of the cheapest car in the country in the form of Tata Nano was anticipated to be a great success by the Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Indian multinational conglomerate, Tata Group back in the year 2008. He acknowledges that the economy car wasted an early opportunity of capturing the mass market segment but is still expecting that the car has intense potential in the developing world.
As per Mr. Tata, Nano was positioned as an affordable family car only and not as a poor man’s car. But since its inception, the car has been facing several economic constraints commencing with the issues raised on setting up the production plant at West Bengal. This was followed by fire eruption incidents owing to which Tata Motors offered to incorporate safety equipments. The automaker had also reported the replacement of starter motors in over 1.4 lakh Nano cars.
In the automaker’s Annual Report for the financial year 2011-12, Mr. Ratan Tata mentioned that with the fundamental economies offered by Tata Nano, it will ensure a concrete stand in the Indian auto market with expansion of sales and service network. He further added that in the last fiscal year, the sales of Tata Nano showcased an upward trend as compared to overall passenger vehicle sales of the automaker.
During the year 2011-12, the sales of Tata Nano totalled at 77,989 units in comparison to the sale of 70,433 units in the year 2010-11 scoring a growth rate of 10.73 percent. Of these, the domestic market sales stood at 74,527 units along with exports tallying at 3,462 units in the last fiscal.
