The Hindu Business Line : Nano final lap sees surge at dealerships

Will it be only two lakh? Or, as the optimists suggest, over five lakh? Dealers Business Line spoke to had little clue about what was happening across the country. What they did notice though was that queues were larger than usual on Saturday since it was the last day.

While a section of dealers insisted that the response had been good, others were not as enthusiastic.

Bookings for the Nano were also done online and experts said that this would also constitute a significant share of the overall number. A Mumbai-based dealer reported over 3,500 bookings from the time it began on April 9. “We are given to understand that it will exceed eight lakh across the country,” he said.

A dealer in New Delhi said that more than 1,000 customers had booked the Nano from his outlet. “Though I would have been happier with more, I still think it is a fairly good number. My forecast is that it will be anything between 4 and 5 lakh across the country,” he added.

Site crashes

The last-day rush for online bookings literally clogged the Tata Nano Web site causing it to crash for a brief period. As a result, buyers had to rush to the dealerships to complete the formalities. A few dealers said that they would keep their outlets open till the midnight of April 25 to ensure optimal bookings. Most of the public sector banks involved in the booking process were not exactly enthusiastic about the response, describing it as “lukewarm and disappointing”.

Union Bank of India has seen only about 3,000-4,000 bookings so far, according to an official. “The response from rural and semi-urban centres was not as much as we expected while big centres like Mumbai hardly showed any interest,” he said.

It was the same story at Corporation Bank which, going by what one of its executives said, had only garnered “a few thousand bookings”.

However, State Bank of India had little reason to complain. “We sold a good number of forms and saw a good response,” an official said.

Interestingly, the Nano Web site had a poll to predict the total number of bookings where a near identical percentage (41) believed that it would be either in the range of 1-5 lakh or 5-15 lakh. Only 18 per cent thought it would exceed 15 lakh.

“As far as we are concerned, the overall response has been overwhelming and we are happy. It is customers who will eventually determine the numbers,” said a Tata Motors spokesman.

He reiterated that the company did not plan to extend the booking period. The total number will be compiled by Tuesday and then made public.

Challenges

From Tata Motors’ point of view, what could be the limiting factor is that the first year of production will see only 50,000 cars because the mother plant at Sanand in Gujarat is expected to be fully operational only by January 2010 with a full capacity of 2.50 lakh units. The plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand has an annual capacity of 50,000 cars.

The other challenge is to ensure that there are absolutely no glitches from the batch being produced in Pantnagar.

The present arrangement involves select engine components being assembled at the Pune plant and then transported to Pantnagar for final fitting.

Related Stories:
Nano bookings may near 10-lakh mark
Nano booking counters bustle with activity on Day 1
How customers can book their Nano

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