NANO will meet the environmental and fuel price challenges

Ratan Tata is all set to sweeten the offer for his dream car Nano. The Rs 1 lakh ‘people’s car’, the world’s cheapest, is all set to take you on a long drive as Tata now plans to work on improving fuel efficiency of the vehicle to offset the record oil price.
“New variants of the Nano are under development to meet the environmental and fuel price challenges,’’ Tata told shareholders and said production of the car is on schedule and it would be out towards year-end. At present, Nano promises a fuel efficiency of almost 20 km per litre.
“The company’s new plant for the Nano in Singur, West Bengal, is expected to go into operation in the last quarter of this calendar year,’’ Tata said amid reports that the upcoming facility is still facing trouble. Tata said apart from generating “unprecedented’’ response in the domestic market, the car was also getting “enormous interest’’ in foreign markets. The new variants would also be developed keeping in mind the requirement of several international markets, he added.
However, he hinted that maintaining the breakthrough price tag was a challenge, especially due to “enormous and unprecedented increase in material costs like steel and tyres’’.
Tata said the new fiscal would be full of challenges for the company as higher fuel prices and tighter money supply with higher interest rates will negatively impact both commercial vehicle and passenger car sales. “In addition, the company will have to manage the completion of the Singur plant and introduction of Nano in the market,’’ he said.
On the company’s recently-concluded acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford, he said they would add to global scale, profits and visibility to Tata Motors “enabling it to take its place in the global auto industry as a credible international automobile company’’.