Tata Nano Car caught fire in New Delhi

On August 27, 2010, in New Delhi, Tata Nano, the cheapest car of the world produced by Tata Motors, caught on fire.  

The incident took place in South Delhi around noon near Uphaar cinema hall in Green Park. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

A Green Park official said that there were sparks from the rear of the car immediately after switching on the ignition and within a few minutes, fire spread out all over the car and destroyed it. A fire tender was brought instantly and the fire was stopped within few minutes.

This is the sixth incident of a Nano catching fire in India. The previous incidents took place in Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and near Vadodara in Gujarat.

Tata spokesman Debasis Ray said, “We will investigate the incident,……We had subjected the car to a thorough check and the team had concluded that the Nano is absolutely safe.” However, he did not comment on any possible reason behind such fire.

On May 21, 2010, the company said that a 20-member team of Tata Motors along with an independent forensic expert looked to find out the reasons of the cars catching fire. The team declared that Tata’s “People’s car” was “absolutely safe.” The team did not found any manufacturing defects in the cars. 

The investigation team also said that igniting of a foreign object in contact with the car’s hot exhaust system caused one fire while another incident was caused by a ruptured fuel line.    

The company also announced to start a program to check all the Nanos it sold in order to ensure customers that the cars are safe but it was not a recall. 

Tata Nano will be exported to the U.S.

Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, is going to be showcased at the Detroit Science Center on January 14, 2009. It is located few miles away from the venue of the Detroit Auto show. The model that will be displayed had been loaned by Tata Technologies’ Center for Advanced Engineering and Design located in Pune. Tata Technologies played key role in designing the car from the scratch. Journalists can sit inside the car and check out its various features but they could not test drive the car.

Tata Nano, the brainchild of Ratan Tata, is a bare-bones vehicle made for those people who rides two wheeled vehicles. Dubbed as “The People’s Car,” the Nano was unveiled at Delhi Auto show in 2008. The base price of the car starts from $2,500 and the high-end model costs $3700.

Tata Nano will be exported to the U.S in the next few years but the Nano has to do some major structurual overhaul to meet the U.S standards such as bigger engines and better safety standards.The creation of Tata Nano also sparked a competition among carmakers to build ultra-low-cost small cars. Renault and Nissan is going to launch a small car like Nano in 2012. General Motors already launched a small car with a price tag of $7000.

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Tata Nano lottery winners have been chosen: Are you feeling lucky?

The highly anticipated Tata Nano draw has finished and on June 23, 2009, Tata Motors announced that it selected more than 1,55,000 lucky winners who would get the “World’s cheapest car.” In a statement issued by the company it said that out of 2,06,703 applicants the company chose first 1,00,000 owners. The company also announced that it has finished the selection process of the “second phase” where it will give out Tata Nano to 55,021 customers. The company will start giving out the cars to the winners of the draw from next month and finish delivering the first one hundred thousand cars within March 2010. The whole selection process was done by a lottery.

In the launching ceremony of the Tata Nano on March 23, 2009, the company announced that the first one hundred thousand customers will get Tata Nano at the “ex-showroom prices.”

About 67% of the total applicants (1,37,687 people) wanted to retain their bookings if in case they are not selected in the first draw. The company will return the booking amounts to those applicants who lost in the first draw and did not opt for the second draw. For the base model of Tata Nano, the booking amount was 95,000, Rs. 1,20,000 for the mid-level model and Rs.1,40,000 for the high-end model. The applicants who wanted to retain their bookings would be directly paid 8.5% interest on their booking amounts if their car is delivered within two years from the date of allotment and 8.75% if it takes more than two years.

Those who would not win the draw have a consolation prize. For unsuccessful applicants, Tata Motors is going to offer “Tata Indica Vista scheme.”

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Tata Home: The Future of Real Estate Sector in India?

(This entry was originally uploaded on May 2009.)

India is a vast country but with a population of over 1 billion. Because of poor distribution of national wealth, most people living in Indian cities and towns cannot afford to have a home or apartment of their own. Millions of people live in rented apartments. The price of land and apartment has increased many folds in the last 2 decades in most of the major cities. So, many families have given up the hope of having a home of their own someday. Good news for them is that Tata has come up with a unique concept of small apartments.

Tata is making many small apartments within the price range of $7,800 to $13,400. Most of them will have just one room and the size will be very small- 283 sq ft. Well, many people will surely like the arrangement because they can never dream of buying anything for $8000 in any part of Mumbai. At first, there will be 1000 homes. Well, I would like to call them as apartments or flats instead of homes.

This housing project has come after the successful launch of Tata Nano- the cheapest car in the world.

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Maruti Suzuki Unimpressed and Unmoved by Tata Nano?

Tata Nano is the market and it is expected to become popular in the Indian market. Well, my fellow blogger Mehdi Hassan has expressed some doubt whether Nano will turn around Tata Motors’ luck. You know that Maruti is the largest player in the auto market in this country. In fact, Maruti 800 is the cheapest car in Indian roads right now. Nano will replace it when Tata Nano hits the road in large number. So, you may wonder whether Maruti bosses would feel some kind of pressure as their car is no longer the cheapest car in the country.

It seems that Maruti officials are not impressed or do not feel any pressure because of the arrival of Nano in the market. They feel that their dominance and market share will remain intact. They feel so confident that they have announced that they would not slash the price of their inexpensive models.

I agree with their idea because Tata Nano and Maruti 800 are for different market segments and for different kinds of consumers. The consumers who can afford Maruti 800 would never go for Nano. They have perhaps the right reason to feel this way confident. Despite economic recession, Maruti sale has not suffered until now.

(This entry was originally published in March 2009.)

Will Tata Nano turn around Tata Motors’ luck?

Tata Motors is finally launching Tata Nano, the ultra-low-cost car, on March 23, 2009. Had things gone according to the plan, Tata Motors would have launched Nano six months earlier. Tata Motors was supposed to build its Tata Nano manufacturing facility in West Bengal. Due to political pressure, the project was scrapped and replaced in the industry friendly Gujarat province. Tata Nano which costs Rs. 100,000 ($2050) is the cheapest car in the world. The snub nosed car is 10.2 feet long. It comes with a windshield wiper, a 623cc rear engine and diminutive trunk. There are no extra-safety or comfort features. The car does not have any air bags, anti-lock brakes, air-conditioning, radio, or power steering. If buyers want to have these features, they would have to pay extra money.

Now, the million dollar question is: Will Tata Nano see the face of profit? Had Tata Nano released the car six months earlier, the question could be answered with a positive note but now, the gloom of economic recession is hanging over India and stalled its economic growth.

Like many other companies Tata Motors is also facing the heat of the recession. Only two years ago, Tata was on the path of unprecedented growth. Last year, it bought Jaguar/Landrover from Ford for $2.3 billion. The company took huge loan to buy the two brands. Now, everything has changed for Tata Motors. In the economic recession, commercial vehicles which make up Tata’s core business had been badly hit. The company registered a loss of $54 million in the last October-December quarter.

Moreover, the relocated factory of Tata Nano has not been finished yet. Tata officials said that it would take at least one year to finish the new Tata Nano manufacturing facility. Initially, Tata announced to roll out 250,000 Nanos but analysts think that the company would not be able to produce more than 50,000 units. According to Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst, Angel Broking, even if Tata can achieve its target it would only add 3% to the total revenue of the company and it would make much of a different.

Like it or not, I like what Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever Group said, “Recession can’t be an excuse for business to go down.” It is true that companies are suffering for economic recession but they must continue and try their best to survive this recession. Tata is going to launch Tata Nano tomorrow. I wish them all the best with the car.

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(This entry was originally published in March 2009.)

Mukesh Ambani and Anand Jain’s Mumbai SEZ project is in legal trouble

Another major struggle between powerful corporate house and poor farmers is looming on the horizon. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries and his childhood friend Anand Jain, promoter, Jai Corp., were planning to build a big Special Economic Zone stretching over 10,000 hectares of land near an upcoming port in Rewas, Maharashtra. The land acquisition process was overseen by Mumbai Special Economic Zone (MSL). Recently, the two firms filed a petition in the Supreme Court to stay the Section 4 of the Land Acquisition act of 1894. This act allows the State government to purchase the land for big projects. However, the Supreme Court denied their plea as this whole process goes against regular land acquisition procedure and the interest of the farmers whose lands would be acquired.

Over the years, Indian economy grew at an unprecedented rate but the benefit of that economic growth was not enjoyed by the hundreds and thousands of poor farmers living in villages all over India. You all know about the serious opposition Tata Automobiles faced when they wanted to build their Tata Nano plant in Singur. It is true that the Nano plant would create lots of jobs but the farmers who would have lost their lands would not get any job. The farmers know only one profession, that is farming and growing crops. After acquiring their lands, they would get some money but it would not help them to survive in future. Neither the companies who take over farm lands, nor the government, arrange any alternative profession or give any training to these farmers, so that they could support their families in future by engaging in some other professions. I am very happy with the decision given by the Supreme Court in this case. It is time Indian government and private organizations start giving serious thoughts about Indian farmers.

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