Tata Sets Nano Launch Date for March 23
February 26, 2009
After continuous postponements, India's Tata Motors finally has set a launch date for the
Tata Nano. The roughly $2,500 minicar will go on sale March 23, about three months after initially planned with the automaker being forced to relocate the factory to make the car.
Tata, which is billing the Nano as the world's cheapest passenger car, said Thursday in a statement that it will begin displaying the car in dealerships the first week of April and will begin taking customer orders the following week.
At the March launch, which will include media test-drives, Tata will provide details about the car and the order process will be revealed.
Tata unveiled the Nano last January at the New Delhi auto show and promised it would sell the car for 100,000 rupees (about $2,000) as an affordable and safe means of transportation to motorcycles. The Nano was to go on sale in the fourth quarter of calendar 2008.
However, Tata delayed the Nano launch when farmers in the area of the Nano factory protested about the way the company acquired their land. Tata was forced to move its manufacturing site.
Tata had said the new factory will have an initial capacity to produce 250,000 cars per year, a number that eventually can be doubled. The company reportedly plans to sell the Nano in Europe for $5,000 Euros (about $6,300) and will display the European version at next month's Geneva motor show.
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