Tata Motors Ltd., the Indian truckmaker that owns Jaguar and Land Rover, received 203,000 orders for its Nano, the world's cheapest car, more than double the initial sales plan.
The bookings amount to almost 25 billion rupees ($501 million), Mumbai-based Tata Motors said in a statement today. Deliveries will start in July and are expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2010, the company said.
[ Tata Motors were hoping to get around one million booking for their much hyped Tata Nano car. Some guessed that given the enthusiasm around the globe and within India, the number of the booking may be substantially higher than what even Tata Motors anticipated. But the company so far has received only 203,000 bookings for the Nano car. The 1 million target is now a pipedream. -- Khabrein.info]
Tata Motors will choose the first 100,000 customers for the $2,500 Nano by a lottery, leaving the company with at least a year of production as backlog. Surging demand from first-time buyers and motorcyclists in India contrast with plunging automobile sales in the U.S. and Europe where job losses and economic recession have kept consumers away from showrooms.
"The Nano has the potential to become a game-changer for Tata in the long run," said Gaurav Lohia, an analyst at K.R. Choksey Shares & Securities Pvt. in Mumbai. "Once you generate the volumes, you are the king."
The bookings represent about 17 percent of the 1.22 million passenger cars sold in India, Asia's fourth-largest automobile market, in the fiscal year ended March. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., maker of half the cars sold in the country, sold 636,707 units while Hyundai Motor Co. sold 244,030 and Tata Motors sold 160,446, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said.
Tata Motors shares rose 6 percent to 258.35 rupees in Mumbai today. The shares have gained 62 percent this year.
