Tata Motors, the country’s largest automobile manufacturer, is going through hard time in luring domestic buyers towards buying its Nano entry level small car. The dwindling Nano sales in the India auto market had left the company with no option but to offer several exciting discounts and EMI schemes over the last few months. However, Tata Motors’ efforts to boost sales failed miserably and the company managed to sell just 948 Nano units during April 2013.
The prevalent slowdown in the domestic passenger car market offered little or no help for Tata Nano sales in the country. As per reports provided by Tata Motors, the company reported an 88 per cent drop in the sales of Nano entry level car during April 2013, a sharp decline as against some 8,028 units sold in the same year-ago period.
Apart from the abysmal sales of Nano model recorded last month, the company did not export a single model overseas, which reflects the same story witnessed year-ago. Not one unit of Nano was exported by Tata Motors in April 2012, albeit the company had rolled out its entry level car in the Sri Lankan auto market in 2011.
The Nano sales figures have been falling rapidly throughout the entire 2012-13 financial year. As per the data collected by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Tata Motors suffered from a 27.75 per cent deficit in the Nano sales figures recorded at 53,848 units during last fiscal, as against 74,527 units sold in 2011-12. Further, exports of Nano had fallen last fiscal at 166 units, as compared to 3,462 units shipped overseas during the previous 2011-12 period, thereby equating to a 95.21 per cent drop.
At present, Tata Nano has no direct rival in the entry level micro car segment and this model remains the country’s cheapest car offering in the Indian auto sector. However, despite being a well-made product Nano has failed to entice the domestic car buyers. The company is looking at a Nano facelift, Nano Diesel and Nano CNG models, for boosting sales in the country. However, only time will tell how the new Nano variants help Tata Motors in achieving its sales targets.
