[Assam] World's cheapest car goes on sale

[Manoj Das]

   World's cheapest car goes on sale
   [image: Nano car] The Nano does not have many of the extras featured on
other cars

*India's Tata Motors will launch its extra-cheap 10 feet (3 metres) long
Nano car in Mumbai on Monday, selling for 100,000 rupees or $1,979 (£1,366).
*

It will enable poorer citizens in developing countries to move to four
wheels for the first time.

The four-door five-seater car has a 33bhp, 624cc engine at the rear. It has
no airbags, air conditioning, radio, or power steering.

It may not be enough to revive Tata Motors - hit by debt and falling sales.

The firm made a 2.63bn rupees loss for the October to December quarter.

*Production issues*

It has also hit difficulty in its quest to refinance the remaining $2bn of
its $3bn loan taken out to buy the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford
Motor in June.

The carmaker has been hit by the global downturn, which has knocked the
spending power of the Indian economy and also made it harder for people to
get loans to buy new cars.

    *I want to be able to take my wife out for a drive in a car - my own car
*
 Indian chauffeur Gopal Pandurang

 World's cheapest car hits Indian market
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7954979.stm>
In addition, the launch has come six months late - it was due in October
2008 - following a row about where the car should be built.

Tata pulled out of its factory in West Bengal in a row over land acquired
from farmers, and instead moved production to the western state of Gujarat.

The new factory will not be ready for another year and until then Tata is to
make a reduced number of Nanos at its other Indian factories.

Even if Tata can sell 250,000 models a year, it will add only 3% to the
firm's revenues, says Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst at Mumbai's Angel
Broking.

"That doesn't make a significant difference to the top line," he said. "And
for the bottom line, it will take five to six years to break even."