Tata Nano GenX launched at Rs 1.99 lakh

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: To revive the fortunes of what Ratan Tata called ‘People’s Car’, Tata Motors on Tuesday launched its new avatar, GenX Nano.

The new GenX Nano range comes with advanced technological features and will be available for sale across the country from today in over 450 Tata Motors sales outlets, Tata Motors Ltd said in a statement.

The GenX Nano comes with a starting price of Rs 1.99 lakh for the XE variant and goes up to Rs 2.49 lakh, for the XT variant, in manual transmission.

The company has further introduced two variants - XMA and XTA with automated manual transmission (AMT).

The XMA variant, priced at Rs 2.69 lakh, will be made-to-order and will be available for sale from August 2015. The XTA variant, which is priced at Rs 2.89 lakh, will be available immediately.

In a bid to lure first time buyers and bury the ‘cheapest car’ tag that has been associated with the Nano, which drew the world’s attention when launched in 2009, the company has made a “critical intervention” offering, with a host of new features.

Following the launch, the existing range of the Nano will be phased out except for the CNG version.

Nano sales had been falling over the years. In 2014-15, sales of the small car decreased by 20 per cent to 16,901 units from 21,129 units in 2013-14.

In order to keep the sales counter ticking, Tata Motors is offering existing customers pre-booking priority with exchange offer schemes.

Ratan Tata, who made the Nano his dream to provide two- wheeler riders a safe alternative, had admitted that Tata Motors made a mistake in the marketing and positioning the Nano as “the cheapest car”. He had called for re-launching the car with a new brand image.

The Nano was originally planned to roll out from a plant in Singur, West Bengal, but it had to be shifted to Sanand in Gujarat after political protests.

Instances of some Nano cars catching fire initially after it was launched didn’t help its cause either.

The car was launched in March 2009 with an initial ex-factory price tag of close to Rs. 1 lakh for the basic model. It is currently available at a price between Rs. 2.04 lakh and Rs. 2.52 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) across variants.

With Agency Inputs

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