Tatas likely to produce 80,000 Nanos in 2009-10
Initial rollout to be from Pantnagar till Sanand is fully ready.
Murali Gopalan Murali Gopalan
Mumbai, Jan. 19 Production of the Nano will be confined to 80,000 units during 2009-10, according to top ancillary suppliers associated with the project.
Tata Motors will manufacture the 623-cc petrol-driven car at its Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand and indications are that the first rollout will happen towards the end of February. The engines and gearboxes will be assembled in the Pune facility and sent to Pantnagar.
“We have inferred from discussions with the company that barely 7,000 cars will be produced by the end of March, going up to 80,000 units next fiscal. Ramping up huge volumes at Pantnagar is difficult because this is an interim arrangement before the Sanand facility in Gujarat is ready,” a section of vendors, who preferred to be anonymous, told Business Line.
Officials at Tata Motors said they really had nothing to comment on the subject. Pantnagar is already home to the Ace pickup and indications are that it could still end up being a satellite plant for the Nano, which will source CKD (completely knocked down) kits from the mother facility at Sanand when it is up and running.
This plant in Gujarat is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2010-11 and that is when the initial projected numbers of 1,50,000 cars in the first year could well become a reality.
“Volumes will finally depend on market conditions and if the slowdown persists even next year, then projections will be revised downwards,” sources said.
The Rs 1-lakh price tag announced at the time of unveiling the car at the Auto Expo last year was only an ex-factory cost without transport overheads. This is the basic version without air-conditioning. The other two options will be more expensive and expected to account for 75 per cent of total sales. According to suppliers, work is already underway for a 684 cc diesel version which could debut in 2010-11.
The original target was 96,000 cars this fiscal, which was trimmed to 50,000 following the agitation at Singur. Suppliers were still hopeful that at least 15,000 Nanos would roll out from Pantnagar in the fourth quarter, but “it looks as if only half that number will be achieved.”
Suppliers to the Nano will cater to delivery of parts from their existing plants to Tata Motors’ facilities at Pune (for engine components) and Pantnagar. Fresh investments in Sanand are inevitable next fiscal and most of them are keeping their fingers crossed about getting “adequate compensation” for losses incurred at Singur.
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