Tata Motors, which was once banking on Tier III and IV towns to push Nano sales, has stalled plans to expand its exclusive Nano dealership chain. The company currently has about 100 dealerships, much short of its original plan of 300 exclusive dealers opened in the first phase.
Tata Motors is now betting on newer variants ? including the recently launched Nano Twist and the upcoming AMT version ? to revive sales for Nano, now repositioned as a city car. ?We have about 100 exclusive Nano dealerships, most of which operate in small towns and rural markets. We are not planning to add more dealerships,? said a spokesperson.
In FY14, Tata Motors sold just about 21,129 Nanos, a decline of 60.7% on a y-o-y basis and Na-no’s worst year since its launch in July 2009. The company sold 74,527 Nanos in FY12, 70,432 in FY11 and 30,350 Nanos in FY10, starting July 2009 onwards.
Nano is made at the Sanand plant, which has a capacity of 2.5 lakh units but is operating at barely a tenth of that. Since its launch in 2009, the company has sold a little over 2.5 lakh units, not quite what it was hoping for.
Despite the company’s aggressive stance, analysts believe Tata Motors will have to battle out tough market conditions to justify the repositioning.
