Na-Na Nano

The Fabled Nano...

How Tata Nano hit a big bump in India

MUMBAI: The Tata Nano was a small car that was expected to deliver big numbers — the new plant at Sanand in Gujarat was built to produce 2.5 lakh units a year, eventually ramping up to 5 lakh units. But 15 months after a high-profile launch, it has encountered trouble at every turn — three instances of the car going up in flames and a few cases of smoke emanating from it (the last was in September), confusion about its positioning, a rather unexpected bunch of affluent initial buyers, poor distribution reach, and financing bottlenecks. Nano’s sales have dipped from 9,000 units in July to 3,000 in October to just a little over 500 in November.

An ETreporter who visited Sanand on Tuesday met workers at the industrial zone who said production of the Nano has come to a near standstill; the number of workers there has decreased by 80% in the last month. The company declined to answer a specific emailed query on the firm stopping Nano production, even though it opened up to detailed interviews on all other aspects of the car.