In a struggling automotive industry, Tata Motors India has managed to sell more than 203, 000 of its ultra-cheap Nano cars, yielding sales of 25 billion rupees (R4.6 billion), in just one week.
The sales are significant in a country where 1.5 million passenger cars were sold in 2008. At a price of 100, 000 rupees (R17 000) plus tax and transport costs, consumers have given the world’s cheapest car brand the green light. Tata Motors stated that the Nano website received an unprecedented 30 million hits between March 23 and April 25 and about 1.4 million people went to see the car at Tata stores.
Tata has proven that there is a vast increase in consumers who are, in the current economic climate, looking for the most affordable vehicles. Newsweek identified the Nano as part of a, ‘new breed of 21st century cars that embody a contrarian philosophy of smaller, lighter and cheaper’ and ‘portend a new era in inexpensive personal transportation’. The Nano is currently only being sold in
