indo-asian news service, Mumbai, May 19: India’s automobile major Tata Motors Tuesday launched the GenX Nano, a new technologically-advanced entry-level hatchback car aimed at the “trendy, youthful, bold and stylish customer”.
Stressing that the Nano – originally conceived as a Rs1 lakh car – has put India on the world motoring map by demonstrating innovation and frugal engineering, the company’s president for passenger vehicles Mayank Pareek said, “It continues to remain an important brand in our passenger vehicle portfolio and we have been constantly evolving the product.”
The launch of the GenX Nano is very crucial for the automobile giant, with the Nano sales having dipped over the past three fiscals.
The car has a starting price of Rs1.99 lakh, and the company plans to sell it across 450 outlets throughout India.
The company said the compact car was aimed at the “trendy, youthful, bold and stylish customer”.
The successor to the Nano brand comes with a starting ex-showroom Delhi price of Rs1.99 lakh for the base model, while three other models are priced at Rs2.49 lakh, Rs2.69 lakh and Rs2.89 lakh.
Parekh said the new car was smart, stylish, efficient and a practical city car, which has strong potential in the compact hatch segment.
“After Zest and Bolt, the GenX Nano is our third offering under Horizonext and we continue to reach out to our customers with feature-rich products that offer best-in-class technology and design engineering,” he said.
The company said it thought of the idea of the GenX Nano around two years ago.
Interestingly, the sales of Nano fell by more than 60 percent in 2012-13.
Conceived by the company’s then chairman Ratan Tata, the small car was first unveiled at the auto expo in January 2008.
“With the addition of the GenX Nano… the company is all geared to expand its sales network from around 450 outlets to 1,500 outlets in the next five years. This year, the company will add 200 outlets, across the country,” he said.
The backgrounder
- Tata wanted to set up the “people’s car” Nano’s factory in the rural hamlet of Singur in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, but had to abandon the plant in October 2008 following massive protests by farmers led by the then opposition Trinamool Congress against what the party called “forcible land acquisition” by the Left Front government.
- Nano got a home subsequently in Sanand of Gujarat, following the personal initiative of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
- In April 2009, the car received a historic pre-booking order of 206,703 units.
- In 2011, the car faced starter motor issues, which resulted in recall of 14,000 units.
- From 2010 to 2012, the company sold 144,959 units of the budget car, with sales peaking during 2011-12 at 74,527 units after which it has steadily declined.
- During 2013-14, the car’s sales fell by 60.8 percent at just 21,129 units and the following year, sales went further south.
Analystspeak
P. Karthikeyan, research analyst for Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd., told IANS in Chennai that the new Nano may log in some numbers during the initial period. “But in the long run, whether it would succeed is a big question. Nano is generally known as a `1 lakh car and it was launched at that price with much fanfare. Now if the same brand is priced at a minimum price of around `2 lakh, then people may not like to associate with that car that is seen as the `1 lakh car. It is very difficult to erase the `1 lakh brand,” Karthikeyan said.
