Tata Motors may increase price of Nano by Rs15,000
16 Jun 2010
Tata Motors is likely to increase the price of its ultra-cheap Nano by as much as Rs15,000 due to rising input costs and technology upgradation to comply with emission norms.
India has made it compulsory for new cars to comply with BS-IV emission norms for 13 cities and BS-III for the rest of the country by 1 April 2010.
Since Tata Motors is making the Nano compliant to both the BS-IV and BS-III emission norms, the company is planning to increase the price of the Nano to cover the additional cost of technology upgradation at its plants.
The rising input costs are also affecting the cost of the car that is dubbed the world's cheapest car.
The upward revision of the price will not affect the first 100,000 consumers that were chosen through a lottery system, but the price increase is likely to come into effect for bookings made thereafter.
In June 2009, Tata Motors had selected the first 100,000 owners of the Nano through a lottery draw, making them price protected, but the 55,021 applicants for the car who missed out on the first batch and retained their bookings, will not be protected against the price rise. (See: Tata Motor selects 100,000 Nano owners; others kept on hold)