No Nano luck? Try sweetener

A Nano

Mumbai, June 23: The lottery for the Nano is finally over — and the company is trying to keep all the 2 lakh applicants happy.

The 51,682 applicants who lost out in the lottery — and didn’t want to keep their bookings alive — are being offered a discount to upgrade to other cars from the company’s stable.

Today, Tata Motors announced the selection of the first 100,000 customers who would receive the keys to the world’s cheapest car by the last quarter of 2010. The Nano deliveries start early next month.

The company had received 206,703 applications for the Nano. In a media release issued today, the company said 55,021 applicants had decided to retain their bookings. They will have to wait until the company makes the first 1 lakh deliveries.

The company did not disclose the size of the discounts on the Indica range it is offering to the unsuccessful applicants, which would be “over and above any current scheme on these cars in the market”. The Tata Indica V2 carries a tag (ex-showroom price) of Rs 3.43 lakh in Mumbai.

The 100,000 lucky Nano winners, who have been chosen by a random computerised programme, will be individually informed by Tata Motors. Total allotment in Bengal is expected to be around 2,000 in the first phase.

Tata Motors said the first 100,000 Nano owners were price-protected and would get Nanos at the ex-showroom prices announced at the launch on March 23.

Details of the status of allotments are also available on www.tatanano.com and the company is offering status reports from a call centre.

The second lot of 55,021 customers, who have chosen to park their booking amount with Tata Motors, will earn an interest of 8.5 per cent on their booking amount if the car is delivered within two years from the date of allotment and 8.75 per cent if the car is delivered after two years from the date of allotment. The interest will be paid to these customers directly by Tata Motors.

The company said all efforts were being made to deliver the cars earlier than the scheduled dates by ramping up production at the Pantnagar plant in Uttaranchal and the Sanand plant in Gujarat.

At present, Pantnagar can make 50,000 Nanos a year. This number can, however, be stepped up. Once the Sanand plant is commissioned, the company will be able to raise its production capacity to 250,000 cars a year.