subject: Small Price - Small Car - The Four Door Tata Nano [print this page] Small Price - Small Car - The Four Door Tata Nano
Tata Motors Ltd, the India based automotive company who also owns the luxury brands Land RoverandJaguar,has recently announced the opening of their newest auto plant in Sanand, Gujara, India. With the goal of establishing the Tata brand as a major automaker for the masses, Tata has begun some much needed expansion into the low-cost automotive market.
Tata has focused much of its time and efforts into the Nano; Tata's newest version of the world's cheapest car. The base model will be priced around $2,500 making it distinctively the lowest priced new car in the world.
The main marketing behind the Tata Nano is that it is a vehicle that is light weight, small, affordable, efficient, and simple. This means the base models will come equipped with a single windshield wiper, no radio, and no air conditioning. While the base Nano may seem to lack any sort of frills, the lack of features enabled the company to make the Nano a truly affordable vehicle for personal transportation for the people of India.
Since its initial commercial launch on March 23, 2009, the introduction of the Nano has had an overwhelming response generating over 200,000 orders. Priced far below its main competitor, the Suzuki's Maruti 800 priced at around $4,000, the Nano continues to gain popularity throughout India.
When it comes to producing small, relatively inexpensive vehicles in India, Tata's two main automotive competitors are Hyundai and Suzuki (the two largest in the country). Luckily for Tata, having the first mover advantage has enabled the company to catapult its image to the top gaining countless recognition in the minds of the consumer. Some experts have speculated that the advantage has actually enabled Tata to capture half, if not more, of the low cost automotive market in India.
While the Tata Nano is currently the cheapest, another automaker, Renault, has teamed with Bajaj Auto to produce a similar light weight, very low cost vehicle in an attempt to compete with the Nano. Though the new vehicle will not be seen on show room floors until 2012, the joint venture has already announced plans to build a plant dedicated to the production of this vehicle potentially producing up to 400,000 vehicles a year at the single plant.
Due to a rapid economic expansion and a rise is income levels in India, the availability of disposable income has boosted the popularity of vehicle purchasing. In fact, the auto market in India is expanding so rapidly that the market is speculated to double in size by 2015 bringing the demand to nearly 3,000,000 cars annually. Additionally, the overall popularity of low-cost cars in general is steadily growing with some experts forecasting the demand for low-cost cars in India reaching around 1,000,000 a year by 2016.
With the goal of creating a brand presence on the roads of India, the newest Tata plant located in Sanand, has been designed to produce up to 250,000 Nanos in a single year. This number may reach 350,000 when the plant is in full on production.
The production at the new plant is designed for not only for domestic use, but aims to aid in the future production of foreign sold Nanos. Tata plans on entering the Nano into the European market by early 2011.
With future trends leaning towards smaller, more efficient, low-cost cars, especially in countries such as India, small cars like the Tata Nano will soon become a very familiar face of travel. With the first mover advantage, the Nano has currently made Tata the leader in small affordable vehicles.
