As month's of wait finally comes to an end, buyers will get the chance of booking their Nano when Tata Motors officially starts the booking process of the world's cheapest car from tomorrow.
The booking period lasting for 17 days will be one of a kind where consumers will have to make an upfront payment of a minimum of Rs 95,000, which is 84 per cent of the ex-showroom (Pantnagar) price of a Standard BS II version of Rs 112,735.
Despite the steeper asking price for the car, consumers flocked to Tata Motors showrooms and other designated outlets to grab application forms. At many such touch points of dealerships, banks and other retail outlets, officials were found struggling to keep pace with the demand for forms.
According to conservative estimates, about 10 lakh forms have been sold already across the country considering that Tata Motors used 30,000 outlets in about 1,000 cities for the distribution purpose.
About 218 dealers of Tata Motors, each of whom had been given more than 2,500 forms each to begin with, ran short of supply by the third day. "Almost all dealers had to place orders for more forms from the second day itself," said a dealer based in Mumbai. Sales of application forms priced at Rs 300 started on April 1.
The price of the Nano in metropolitan cities like Mumbai and New Delhi will be well above the Rs 1 lakh mark due to prohibition of cars having engines not complying to BS III (emission) standards in these cities. Additional transportation charges has also pushed up the cost.
In Mumbai, a Nano consumer will have to fork out Rs 134,250 (Rs 123,360 in New Delhi) for the standard (base) variant, excluding registration, insurance and service costs.
Also Read
Within 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 100,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerised random selection procedure.
Tata Motors has promised of price protection for the first batch of allotments of the car. But the booking amounts will not bear any interest for the customer. Deliveries will commence from July 2009.
Expectedly the car has regenerated a huge interest amongst potential buyers after production, distribution and booking methods were unveiled by Tata Motors at the time of the cars' launch on March 23.
"People are very excited about the car. We are getting enquiries from the full class of buyers including people belonging to the higher income group, a two-wheeler owner, a small time businessman, a person who has never bought a car before," said Binod Aggarwal, owner of Lexus Motors in Kolkata.
In addition, many of the branches of the State Bank of India (SBI), with whom Tata Motors has entered into an exclusive agreement to manage the booking process, have already run out of forms.
A senior SBI official dealing with retail finance business said some branches, are seeking more forms from Tata Motors saying "the response higher than expected". This is mostly experienced in towns, while the bank is still sending forms to remote branches.
"The initial feedback is the response is not concentrated in the large and big cities and there is fairly good amount of interest in the smaller towns in the country," the official added.