Overwhelming orders for ‘world’s cheapest car’

Indian car manufacturer Tata Motors has announced that more than 203,000 orders, worth 25 billion rupees (£340 million), have been placed for the hotly anticipated Tata Nano.

The Tata Nano was officially launched as the world’s cheapest car – at a mere 100,000 rupees (£1,358), in March in an effort to redefine personal transportation in modern India.

However, despite the high volume of orders, production problems mean that only 100,000 cars will be made by the end of 2010. Although the company has said that all efforts would be made to ramp up production and deliver earlier.

The first recipients will be randomly selected through a computerised draw and the lucky few will be notified within 60 days of the closure of the booking period, which ended on 25 April 2009.

Somewhat surprisingly during these hard economic times, half of the orders placed were for the deluxe version of the Nano, which comes with air conditioning and electric windows and costs 185,000 rupees. Only 20% of the orders were for the most basic model, which comes without airbags, air conditioning, radio or power-steering.

The Tata Nano website has continued to prove a big draw and received an unprecedented 30 million hits between its launch and the closure of the booking period. In a first for the automotive industry in India, more than 4,000 cash bookings were made online via the Tata Nano website.

The company said it wanted to “place on record its gratitude to the people of India for according such a warm welcome to the Tata Nano.”

By Nicki Green