Months of wait are finally coming to an end as Tata Motors officially starts the booking process for the Nano, the “world's cheapest car”, from tomorrow.
The 17-day booking period will be one of a kind, as a consumer 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 (Rs 112,375) of a Standard BS II version of the car.
Despite the steep asking price, people have flocked in large numbers to showrooms and other designated outlets to grab the application forms. At many such places, officials were found struggling to keep pace with the demand for forms.
By conservative estimates, about a million forms have been sold across the country, considering that Tata Motors used 30,000 outlets in about 1,000 cities for the purpose.
It appears that 218 dealers of Tata Motors, each of whom had been given more than 2,500 forms to begin with, ran short of forms 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 on cars with engines not complying with BS III (emission) standards. Additional transport charges have also pushed up the cost.
In Mumbai, a Nano consumer will have to pay Rs 134,250 (Rs 123,360 in New Delhi) for the standard (base) variant, excluding registration, insurance and service costs.
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Within 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata Motors will announce the allotment of cars to 100,000 applicants in the first phase. The company will follow a computerised random selection procedure.
Tata Motors has promised price protection for the first batch of allotments. But the booking amount will not earn the applicant any interest. Deliveries will commence from July 2009.
"People are very excited about the car. We are getting enquiries from the full class of buyers, including those belonging to the higher income group,” said Binod Aggarwal, owner of Lexus Motors in Kolkata.
Many branches of the State Bank of India (SBI), with whom Tata Motors has entered into an exclusive agreement to manage the booking process, have also run out of forms. A senior SBI official dealing with retail finance business said some branches were seeking more forms from Tata Motors. He said "the response is higher than expected." This is mostly experienced in towns, while the bank is still sending forms to remote branches.
"The initial feedback is that the response is not concentrated in large and big cities. There is a fairly high interest in smaller towns as well,” the official added.
Tata Motors has entered into agreements with five insurance companies to offer comprehensive insurance for the Nano.