Tata Motors first showed its Nano at the 9th Auto Expo in January 2008. Ten years on, the company is pulling the plug on the small car. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors made the announcement at the carmaker's 73rd Annual General Meeting on Friday, August 3, 2018.
Sales have dipped sharply in the past year and Tata Motors sold just 65 units of the model in April-June 2018 – down 92 percent from the 872 units sold in the same period of the previous year. In June 2018, the company only dispatched 3 units and produced one single unit of the Nano. In July, only 50 units were manufactured at the Sanand plant in Gujarat.
Upgrading the car to meet upcoming crash test norms, that come into effect on October 1, 2017, is also proving to be expensive. Any additional investment in the Nano will further increase the price of the model. Company insiders say that around Rs 400 crore was invested in making the next-generation Nano (codename: Pelican), and this car would meet new norms, but the company has put the project on hold.
Tata Motor now has a two-platform strategy for its future models. Both platforms –ALFA and OMEGA – will be modular and can help it achieve economies of scale.
