More Tata Nano variants are in the pipeline, as Tata Motors tries every trick in its bag to flog a dead horse. The planned variants include a turbocharged Tata Nano and an electric Tata Nano.
This development comes close on the heels of the introduction of the Tata Nano Twist, a variant equipped with an electric power steering. It was introduced in this January, and has helped provide an improvement to the sales of the Tata Nano. However, everything still isn’t rosy for the Tata Nano as of yet. As it wallows in its self-depreciating image of a “Cheap Car”, sales tumble. Recently, there were reports about Tata Motors temporarily shutting down its dedicated Nano plant at Sanand, Gujarat.
Due to lackluster sales, inventories have been piling up at both the manufacturer’s as well as the vendors’ end. Even though Tata Motors stated that the temporary shutdown was due to a re-tooling process for the launch of new variants, various vendors felt otherwise. Estimates suggest that the Tata Nano is performing so dismally that the Sanand plant isn’t able to utilise even 10% of its installed capacity.
Tata Motors is looking at improving the image of the Nano from a Cheap Car to that of a Smart City Car. The Tata Nano Twist was the first step in that direction, with tight dimensions already being Nano’s forte, and the electric power steering being the value addition. The turbocharged Tata Nano will certainly catch the eyes of those customers who would love a bit of peppiness in the Nano. It would probably be the first time that a mechanical change has been done on the Tata Nano to provide a surge in the car’s power output.
The other variant, an electric Tata Nano, will be known as the Nano “e-Rev”. It will be a hybrid vehicle, which will help increase the range of the Nano and will add a bit of environment-friendliness to its image. Currently, the Tata Nano e-Rev is in the R&D stage, and is one of the many electric products that Tata Motors has planned for the coming future. The only hurdle lying infront of the Nano e-Rev is the high duty structure imposed on such vehicles.
Will this step of introducing more snazzier Tata Nano variants help in shifting its image from the cheap rut that it finds itself in?
Source – Autocar India