Google – AFP, 30 November 2013
 |
A foreign journalist
test drives the newly-released Nano car at the Tata Motors
plant at Pimpri,
some 160 km south-east of Mumbai on March 25, 2009
(AFP/File, Indranil
Mukherjee)
|
New Delhi —
India's struggling Tata Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, could still
have a strong future with a more upmarket image, says Tata group tycoon Ratan
Tata, as the company looks to give the hatchback a new start.
Tata told
US business channel CNBC late Friday he still had high hopes for the tiny Nano
in its home market and abroad.
"A
re-launched Nano with some of the differences that we're trying to incorporate,
yes I do" believe it has good prospects, Tata said.
 |
A Tata Nano
is driven along Mumbai Road
in Mumbai on July 17, 2009 (AFP/File,
Pal Pillai)
|
"We
are going to relaunch the car not as the cheapest car" but with a
different "image", Tata said, without giving a timeframe.
When Tata
Motors -- part of India's giant Tata group -- launched the Nano in 2009,
analysts said it would revolutionise how millions in India travelled. But after
poor sales, it become clear the car's unique selling point -- its price -- had
backfired.
Tata said
the branding of the jelly-bean shaped vehicle as the world's cheapest car was a
mistake.
"It
became termed as a cheapest car by the public and, I am sorry to say, by
ourselves," Tata said, calling the branding "unfortunate".
Rather than
embracing the Nano, the poorer but still status-conscious customer base the car
was targeting largely shunned the "cheap" tag and opted for slightly
pricier rivals.
The base
model initially sold for a price of 100,000 rupees ($1,600).
"The
Nano should have been marketed towards the two-wheeler owner," said Tata,
who trained as an architect and worked closely on the design.
 |
The Nano by
Tata Technologies is
displayed for the first time in North America at the Detroit Science Center January 14, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan (Getty/AFP/File, Bill Pugliano) |
It was
"conceived to give people who rode on two wheels with the whole family an
all-weather safe form of affordable transportation, not the cheapest", he
said.
Families of
four and five are regularly seen balancing precariously on motorcycles weaving
through India's notoriously lethal congested traffic.
"Maybe
it could get launched in another country like Indonesia, where it doesn't have
the (cheap) stigma and the new image comes back to India," Tata said.
"Or
maybe it could be launched as a changed product that gets marketed in Europe.
There's a lot of interest in the Nano outside India," Tata said.
Tata
Motors, which also produces the successful British luxury Jaguar and Land Rover
marques, had aimed to sell around 25,000 Nanos a month. But between
April and October, it sold just 12,322 units.
The base
model, sold without air conditioning, now costs 145,000 rupees.
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