JOIN USTata Motors, which captured consumers imagination with its world-renowned entry-level Nano car and later struggled to gain momentum, on Tuesday unviled its all-new version GenX Nano with new features and betting big on its Power of 1+1 scheme to grow sales pan India.
Passenger Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors Mayank Pareek said the GenX Nano comes with a starting price of Rs 1.99 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the XE variant and goes upto Rs 2.49 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the XT variant, in manual transmission.
“We have introduced two variants – XMA and XTA with ‘Easy Shift’ Automated Manual Transmission. The XMA variant will be made-to-order and will be available for sales from August 2015 in over 450 Tata Motors sales outlets,” said Pareek. The XMA variant has been priced at Rs 2.69 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and the top-end, XTA variant has been priced at Rs 2.89 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and will be available post the national launch. “We have contacted nearly 2.5 lakh customers who have the Nano currently for an exchange as the company sensed a huge opportunity in exchange,” said Pareek.
Out of the customers that we contacted, 11,000 cars have requested for revaluation of the car and those are being evaluated by the company for exchange, Pareek added. Tata Motors had announced the launch of the Power of 1+1 scheme on April 21.
Through this programme, the Nano owners will be offered the best market price for their old Nanos and will also receive a special bonus of Rs 20,000 in addition to the price of the old car.
Additionally, Nano customers can also enroll into a referral programme that could help them win a cash prize of Rs 5,000 for every referral. For the fiscal ended March 2015, Tata Motors had sold around 20,000 Nanos.
Pareek believes that the company needs to work on a lot of factors to improve upon its performance. “We need to work on our network and also on how to interact with customers,” Pareek said. The industry is expected to grow by around 7-8 per cent this year and I expect Tata Motors to exceed industry growth as sentiments are much better now, Pareek added.
When asked whether the GenX Nano will also face the same fate as its previous two launches - the Bolt and the Zest, which could not meet demand due to supply constraints, Pareek did not offer a straight reply. In fiscal 2014-15, the Nano sales hit a rock bottom, falling over 20 per cent to 16,901 units from 21,129 units in the previous fiscal.