JOIN USTata Motors has no plans to invest and upgrade Ratan Tata's dream car Nano to meet BS-VI standards, a senior company official said Thursday indicating that the production and sales of the vehicle would stop from April 2020.
"Nano is produced at our Sanad plant (Gujarat).. ..in January new safety norms came, in April some more new norms will come and in October new safety norms will come and BS-VI is going to happen from April 1 of 2020, so all products may not meet (BS-VI norms) and we may not invest in upgrading all the products... and Nano is one of them," President of Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, Mayank Pareek told reporters.
The entry-level car, the brainchild of Ratan Tata who envisaged giving a safer and affordable alternative to families riding on two-wheelers, received a lacklustre response from the Indian consumer.
It was launched in 2009 with an initial price of about Rs one lakh. Pareek also indicated that some of the existing products of Tata Motors would also be discontinued owing to the BS-VI norms.
However, he did not specify the other passenger vehicles that would be discontinued. On the BS-VI vehicles, he said it was a challenge for automakers as the Supreme Court guidelines do not allow car registrations other than BS-VI after April 1, 2020. "Basically today we (Tata Motors) have 5 or 6 products (in passenger vehicle segment). They will be refurbished and modified. The industry is the biggest challenge. BS-IV stock should become zero by April 1, 2020," he said.
Pareek said during the last 36 months, Tata Motors outperformed the market. For the April-December period, the company has grown by 22.4 per cent. While the industry grew by 4.4 per cent. Three years back Tata Motors had a market share of 2.8 per cent in passenger car segment and it has not reached nearly seven per cent. Currently, it caters only 60 per cent of the car market and aims at covering 90 per cent by launching new products by 2021-22.
According to him, the last festival season was not good in terms of car sales in the country as there was "stress" in the liquidity market and as a result, people getting loans has become "slower".
On the Electric vehicles, he said though they have the technology to develop EVs, there is not enough charging infrastructure available in the country. Pareek Thursday launched "Harrier," the new SUV from Tata Motors stable in the Telangana market. To a query, he said the waiting period for the new vehicle is roughly three months.