Nano sales rev up again after long reverse

Sales of Tata Motors' Nano, which almost hit rock bottom in November at 509 units, bounced back strongly in December to 5,784 units after the carmaker doubled warranties and made financing easier.

This was the second best performance this year by the small car, billed as the cheapest in the world. Though the December figure is much below the July sales figure of 9,000 units, the steep increase comes as a big booster for Tata Motors as it prepares to sell the micro car all over the country by March.

The car is currently sold in 12 states. Its sales had been falling on a month-on-month basis since July this year, with the bottom being reached in November.

The improved sales come on the back of doubling of warranty to four years after a spate fires in new vehicles raised issues of safety. The Mumbai-based company has also begun advertising on television, added more sales outlets in smaller towns, and introduced a Rs99 per month maintenance option for customers.

The ex-show room price of the Nano in Delhi is Rs1.37 lakh. The Maruti Omni, which comes at a price of around Rs1.85 lakh, is its nearest competitor in price.

The company is also retrofitting Nano cars with additional protection in exhaust and electrical systems after a few incidents of fire in the last two years, though the investigations by the company concluded that there was no engineering problem with the car.