Press Trust of India / Mumbai March 23, 2009, 21:16 IST
Tata Motors today said its people's car, Nano, will be priced between Rs 1.34 lakh and Rs 1.85 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai), although the car's claim to fame was its Rs 1 lakh tag.
While announcing the prices, Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata said the company has kept the ex-factory (Pantnagar) price of the base model of the Nano at Rs 1 lakh.
Yet, customers will have to pay far higher than Rs 1 lakh to own the car. The Nano will have a price tag ranging between Rs 1.12 lakh and Rs 1.70 lakh for the three variants at showrooms at Pantnagar, where it is produced.
In Mumbai, the the Bharat Stage III compliant Nano will cost between Rs 1.34 lakh and Rs 1.85 lakh (ex-showroom) and in the National Capital, it will have a price range of Rs 1.23 lakh to Rs 1.72 lakh (ex-showroom) for the three different variants.
"Six years ago we made a decision, a decision to conceive and produce more cars that would give the people of India, who rode with their families on two-wheelers, an affordable all-weather transport at a price that is within their reach," Tata said.
To book the Nano, customers will have to shell out Rs 95,000 for the base model BS II and III, Rs 1.2 lakh for the mid-range model and Rs 1.4 lakh for the top end all across the country.
"We hope this day we will usher in a new form of transport," Tata had earlier told reporters at a conference here to mark the launch of the snub-nosed car that was unveiled in January last year.
He said the endeavour was never to build the cheapest car but to provide an affordable form of transportation to the average Indian family.
Tata, however, hastened to add that "we made a promise (of a Rs 1,00,000 car) and that we've kept the promise".
He told editors earlier in the day that the pricing was not a "gimmick". The low pricing is despite the cost of steel and other materials going up, he said.
According to market research firm Crisil, Nano's price reduces the cost of ownership of an entry-level car by 30 per cent and to below three times the cost of owning a motorcycle.
"This will make the car affordable to an additional 14 million families, including a section of 58 million two- wheeler owners," Crisil said.
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