Tatas eyeing 10 lakh Nano bookings in two weeks

Tata Motors’ Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is poised for another milestone. The company is likely to book a whopping 10 lakh cars in the first fortnight starting March 23, company sources said.

The previous best in India was Fiat Uno, which did about 2.90 lakh bookings in 1995-96.

Simply put, this means a collection of Rs 7,000 crore in a span of two weeks as booking amount for each car will be around Rs 70,000.

All dealers of Tata Motors and select branches of State Bank of India (SBI) will accept bookings simultaneously across the country.

The first batch of cars will roll out from the Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand, which has a capacity to produce only 3,000 cars per month. Situation will ease only after the company’s Sanand plant near Ahmedabad, which will have an initial capacity of producing 250,000 cars per annum, becomes operational in one year.

A survey by Crisil suggested that Nano’s launch could expand the Indian car market by 65 per cent. The increase in the market is expected to push up car sales by 20 per cent over previous year.

Allotment will be made through a draw and, going by projections even during this recession, those at the top of the draw would have the choice of becoming proud owners of the first Nanos, or getting a premium in the black market.