The Tata Nano has been quite the marvel, especially for the growing Indian automotive market. Back in May our partners over at TheCarConnection.com ran a story about the number of orders that were cued up after being on sale for only two weeks. Just to recap, more than 200,000 Indian buyers shelled out money for the deposits on the Tata Nano, a car that some were likely not to take possession of for up to two years. Then came the production issues that according to the Hindustan Times, has translated to about a 15 percent cancellation of current Tata Nano orders.

2009 tata nano minicar 005

2009 tata nano minicar 005

Apparently, the low entry price, starting at about $2500, isn’t enough to make some people wait. A local dealer told Hindustan Times, “People don’t mind shelling out a bit more to get their car immediately.” Unfortunately, Tata is seeing the direct result of a buyers market and if price isn’t the biggest barrier than they are going to lose sales. Most of the production problems were caused by the 2008 land dispute that forced Tata to relocate to a factory in Gujarat. Since, the move in July the company has been able to slowly ramp up production with expected total annual units to be right at the 300,000 mark in the future.

Bottom line—the Tata Nano continues to be a popular microcar in India, but its customer base has been damaged by the in ability to delivery paying customers’ their cars in a timely manner.

 

[Source: LeftLane]