Nano to debut today

23 March 2009

The world's cheapest car will make its commercial debut today. It has been a long journey for Tata Motors from warding off critics who scoffed at the idea of the Nano, to being caught in a political battle at Singur-the small car has come a long way. Possibly, this is a car that had the most tumultuous journey to reach its market. Now, the launch of the Nano is perhaps the most watched event in the auto world. (View the Tata Nano video)

There is quite a lot of excitement as all eyes are on the launch of the world's cheapest car-Tata Nano. The car will be launched in Mumbai on Monday. The two most important things that everyone has been looking forward to is, the actual price of the car and the cost of the car on road. We have been telling you that it would range anywhere between Rs 1.3 to Rs 1.8 lakh or 1.9 lakh depending on the variants, since it will come in three variants. Of course, the actual price will be announced on Monday. (View the Tata Nano picture gallery)

Other than this, the actual booking procedure of the car is going to be announced and that is critical, as millions of people are waiting to buy this car. But the hitch is its limited volumes currently; we understand that the wait could be quite long as there are production constraints. The company plans to reach a 70,000 units target only by the end of April 2010. Currently, they have just managed to build 800-900 or 1,000 cars so far.

There will also be a booking amount for the car and expected anywhere between Rs50,000-Rs60,000. But even after the booking amount, the real question would be that how long would a customer have to wait to get the car in his hands. That is going to be crucial.

All this queries are expected to be answered on Monday by the Tata Motors management. The real test would be whether this Rs 1 lakh car will be fuel efficient, even though the company says that it would give a fuel efficiency of about 23 km/liter, quality, fit, finish, features, along with the running and maintenance cost will also be critical.

Tracing Nano's journey
Today's a day, which will go down history as the day the world saw the commercial launch of its most affordable car-the Tata Nano.