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New Delhi, Jan 6 () Tata Motors did not produce a single unit of its entry-level car Nano in 2019 although it sold just one unit in February even as the company is yet to officially retire Ratan Tata's "people's car". 
According to a regulatory filing by the company, Tata Motors had zero production and sales of the Nano in December 2019 while it produced 82 units and sold 88 units in December 2018.
Similarly, in November 2019 there was zero production and sales of the entry-level model, whereas in the year-ago period it produced 66 units and sold 77 units.
 In October 2019 also, according to the filing, it did not produce or sell any unit of the Nano while in the year-ago month it rolled out 71 units while selling 54 units.
 In the first nine months of 2019 also Tata Motors did not produce a single unit of Nano.
 The company did not sell a single unit in any month last year except February when it sold just one, according to several regulatory filings by the company.
 Tata Motors has so far been maintaining that no decision has been made yet on the future of the Nano saying production planning of a car is a "conscious management of demand, system inventory and planned efficiencies".
It has, however, admitted that in its current form the Nano will not meet the new safety regulations and BS-VI emission norms. 
Tata Motors had unveiled Nano in January 2008 at the Auto Expo with much expectations of being "the people's car", as dubbed by the then Tata group chief Ratan Tata. However, it could not live up to the billing with sales dwindling over the years.
 On the issue of discontinuing the Nano, the company has been insisting that "decisions on product life cycle is a holistic view taken after considering the market developments, regulations and emerging competitive landscape. Any such decisions are announced as and when it's taken".
 Company officials had, however, hinted that production and sales of the Nano would stop from April 2020 as Tata Motors has no plans to invest further on the model to meet strict emission norms under Bharat Stage-VI, which come into effect from April 1 this year and other safety regulations.
 The Nano was launched in the market in March 2009 with an initial price of close to Rs 1 lakh for the basic model despite cost escalations, with Tata insisting that "a promise is a promise".
 However, from the beginning, Nano courted trouble. It was originally planned to be rolled out from Tata Motors' proposed plant at Singur in West Bengal, where it faced intense political and farmer protests against land acquisition. The company had to shift its production to a new plant at Sanand in Gujarat.
 Instances of the car catching fire initially after it was launched didn't help its cause either. Tata had admitted that the company made the mistake of promoting the Nano as 'the cheapest car'.
 It became a loss-making model for Tata Motors with ex-Tata Sons chairman Mistry, who was abruptly removed from the post, even claiming that the Nano "consistently lost value, peaking at Rs 1,000 crore".
 Mistry also termed the Nano one of the "legacy hotspots" and there was "no line of sight to profitability for the Nano, (or) any turnaround strategy".
 He had also claimed that Tata Motors did not stop producing the car due to "emotional reasons". RKL ANU

Tata Nano ends 2019 with zero production, sales of 1 unit

I was in the 11th grade when <keyword id="8555" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata">Tata</keyword> Motors unveiled the <keyword id="28810" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nano">Nano</keyword> at the New Delhi Auto Expo in January 2008. The ensuing PR blitz had me and my friends sold. This compact car was being sold for just ₹100,000 (around $2,500 at exchange rates at the time). It was a passion project of India’s foremost industrialist, Ratan Tata, so there was no way it was going to fail. Annual sales were expected to eventually breach the 500,000 mark. But the Nano was more than just a car. It symbolised India’s approach to frugal innovation, the ability to do more with less, the ability to scale things on the cheap. It symbolised the social mobility promised by the future. Millions of Indian families - the kind that squeezed onto motorbikes for short trips- would now be able to own a car without having to worry about long drawn-out financing plans. It was going to be a gamechanger. And now, ten years later, there are barely any Nanos to be seen on Indian roads. The cheap car has proven to be a very costly failure for its manufacturer, sounding the death knell for Tata’s domestic passenger vehicle business. In June 2018, only one unit was produced by Tata Motors, while only three were sold. No units were exported. How could things go so wrong? The first problem was cost escalations and production delays. The Nano ended up being manufactured at a higher cost than expected, owing to the higher input costs and the need for additional features, but Tata Motors had no choice to sell it at the price that they promised. That was, after all, the USP of the car - that it was only ₹100,000. The car’s large-scale rollout also ended up being pushed back by a year to March 2009 due to production delays, which tempered enthusiasm. Production had to be shifted from the company’s Singur plant in West Bengal to Uttarakhand and Gujarat due to farmer protests over land acquisition. Even with the car’s national launch being delayed, the final product looked like it had been rushed. There were numerous instances of Nano models catching fire in the initial months. The second problem was branding. Tata Motors completely misread the market. <keyword id="20632" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cars">Cars</keyword> were meant to be aspirational products, not just utilitarian. In a country like India, where status signifiers are ubiquitous, buying the “cheapest car” was a dead giveaway that you couldn’t do better. Calling it as such made it seem like it had the bare minimum of features and was less safe to drive than higher-priced hatchbacks. The “1 lakh car” thus became perceived as the “poor man’s car”.There was definitely a strong level of demand for it, but only a fraction of the people who needed such a cost-effective car were ready to purchase it. The car was relaunched as the ₹199,000 “GenX Nano” in 2015, equipped with automatic transmission and Bluetooth connectivity, but the damage was already done by then. The third problem was the lack of a coherent distribution strategy. The Nano would have been a strong-seller in small towns and rural markets, but Tata Motors lacked a solid dealership network in these far flung areas. As sales declined considerably a year after the car’s launch, reaching a low of 550 units in December 2010, Tata Motors even took to selling the car in hypermarket outlets like Big Bazaar and exporting it to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka. The strategy never paid off. The end of the road As things stand, the Nano could go out of production very soon, as its parent looks to axe ageing models. Tata Motors has maintained that it is yet to take a decision on the matter, but the continued investment, especially to comply with future emissions norms, simply does not justify the returns. A statement from Tata Motors clarified this by explaining that “the Nano in its present form cannot continue beyond 2019”. It has been suggested that the car is still in production only due to Ratan Tata’s emotional connection to it, which is hardly a reason to keep going. Even though the Nano brand could be facing the axe, there has been speculation that it will get a further lease of life through Tata Motors’ deal with Jayem Automotives. Under a proposed partnership, Jayem is set to use the body of the Nano to make a special electric vehicle, which will be branded the Jayem Neo EV. However, a spokesperson for Tata Motors said that this was merely speculation. It looks to be a sad end for the “people’s car”, a product that promised so much. However, its phasing out should give way to smarter product choices from the company as it looks to regain market share at home.

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Tata Nano ends 2019 with zero production, sales of 1 unit

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