Tata aims to book 10 lakh Nano in first two weeks

Tata Motors launching the Nano small car this Monday.

This small car is much awaited and it is likely to see massive bookings in the first couple of weeks.

Tata Motors is aiming to book as many as 10 lakh units within the first two weeks.

This should get the company a collection of Rs 7,000 crore considering every booking would require at least Rs. 70,000.

However, people interested in getting their hands on a Nano would have to be extremely lucky.

The supply is going to be very less considering Nano would be shipped initially from the company’s Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand, which has a capacity to produce only 3,000 cars per month.

Situation is only likely to improve next year when Tata would start manufacturing the Nano at their new plant currently being constructed in Sanand.

...Hello Pantnagar?

Will West Bengal’s loss be Uttarakhand’s gain? There’s a buzz in the Pantnagar plant of Tata Motors that equipment from Singur is being shifted here.
While Tata officials are tightlipped, Uttarakhand government stated that executives from the company would meet senior bureaucrats at the state capital on Thursday to discuss various issues. No details are out as yet on the agenda of the meeting.
According to locals at Pantnagar, increased activity has been witnessed at the plant where Tata manufactures its ACE mini trucks and MAGIC passenger vehicles and outsiders have been barred from venturing near the gates.
“In the past few days, there has been a lot of activity in the plant and we have heard that assembling of Nano has already started and some units are ready for the October deadline,” said a local resident.
Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pande welcomed the possibility of Nano project coming to Uttarakhand as it would create ample job opportunities for locals.
“We haven’t received any official communication from Tatas regarding their intention to produce Nano from Uttarakhand”, Pande said. Tata executives would be calling on Industrial department officials on Thursday.
“The officials are coming on Thursday but meeting is all about their old issues”, said P.C. Sharma, Principal Secretary Industries.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.in

Nano to debut from Uttarakhand

First cars by Oct-end as Tata asks vendors to deliver parts at Pantnagar
MUMBAI: The first batch of Nanos, the Rs1-lakh cars the Tatas are making, is scheduled to roll out from Uttarakhand by the end of October.
Ancillary suppliers, who set up shop in Singur, have now been told to deliver parts to Tata Motors’ Pantnagar plant from October 1. This sprawling unit of 1,000 acres already produces the Ace pickup and an additional 300 acres could be allocated for the Nano.
According to top sources associated with the project, Tata Motors has indicated that 100 Nanos will be produced every day between October and March. From April 1, which marks the beginning of fiscal 2009-10, the number will be doubled to 200 cars daily.
“We believe that nearly 15,000 cars will be manufactured this financial year, a steep drop from the earlier estimate of 50,000 units,” a section of vendors told DNA. Interestingly, the original target for 2008-09 was 96,000, Nanos which has now been slashed by over 80%.
Tata Motors will then have a challenge meeting demand because supplies are going to be limited for some months. “Customers will naturally make a beeline for the least expensive car in India and it is important to ensure that there is no encore of the Fiat Uno days in 1996 when production could not keep pace with the huge order list,” sources said.
The company had planned to roll out over 150,000 Nanos in the second year of production but this will require help from satellite plants which are part of the business plan Vendors are clearly not too happy. The first issue, of course, is one of money because their Singur investment on land and buildings may have to be written off. Estimates are that the 55 suppliers involved in the project have spent over Rs500 crore with some of them having installed machinery which will now have to be relocated.
It is also not too clear if Tata Motors or the West Bengal government will compensate them in some way but this will be a time-consuming process. Till then, the Singur investment will reflect in their account books as work-in-progress.
Suppliers have also hinted that they are not going to make any fresh investments in Uttarakhand and would rather meet delivery schedules from their existing plants. At least two of them who spoke to DNA have confirmed that their Pune facilities will take up this task even if it means additional costs on logistics.
“It is just not worth our while putting in more money at a time when business orders from other automakers are just drying up. Most of us have spare capacity in existing plants that needs to be put to good use and catering to the Nano is one way of ensuring this is done,” they said.
Some others insist that Uttarakhand is an interim measure and that Singur will eventually take over as the mother plant once the land issue is resolved. “The West Bengal government will be under pressure to retain the Tatas in the state. There is already a great deal of pressure building up with the company having been offered land by the Karnataka and Gujarat governments,” sources said.
Thanks to this delay, the Nano could have had some significant cost overruns and even the sops offered by the Uttarakhand government are not going to help. The Rs1-lakh (ex-factory) tag would then end up becoming a brief introductory offer price. In any case, this basic (non AC) version is only expected to account for barely 20% of sales with the mid and top-end Nanos taking up the lion’s share.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1192766