Aug 15, 2014 Leading India based automobile maker in terms of revenue, Tata Motors is working to revamp its budget four wheeler Nano in order to re-position it as ‘smart city car’. The dream project of Ratan Tata is expected to now come with additional features including power-steering, enhanced fuel efficiency and improved interiors besides the introduction of a CNG variant.
It appears like the manufacturer has resorted to this repositioning after witnessing a steep fall in sales. Despite having announced a range of discounts and freebies with the Nano, Tata Motors could not garner the attention of consumers. Following the same, the dedicated Nano plant located in Sanand Gujarat is manufacturing less than half its capacity.
It remains surprising that Tata Nano that was launched to quench the desire of those two wheeler owners to acquire a car has failed to sustain its success in the market. The ultimate reason for the same is believed to be the image problem that has lowered its sales.
Tata had already done many activities to promote the sales of the Nano such as introducing a slew of new colors and additional features, but still the vehicle meant for the common man could not manage to attract the targeted audience. Consequently, Tata Nano sales plummeted to 6,017 units from 27,625 units in the -time period from April to July, claim Siam (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).
Revealing details regarding the revamped version of Tata Nano calling it as ‘Smart City Car’, the Senior Vice President of Moto Motors, Girish Wagh claimed that the firm is planning to shed the ‘cheap car’ tag off Nano and ensure not to repeat the mistakes they did in their initial launch.
Furthermore, the delay in the project deliveries became a trouble and added on to the failure in the acceptance of the model. Also, the cases of car catching fire created concerns in the consumers though it was made clear that fire accidents were either due to foreign objects in the exhaust system or external manipulation of the car’s electrical system that got rectified.
We still ought to wait for the launch of the ‘Smart City Car’ and see how it gets accepted among the consumers.
