The Tata Nano has been called the world’s cheapest car available for sale, with a sticker of only approximately $3,000.00. Just overnight, as a publicity stunt, the vehicle was transformed with gold, silver and jewelry into the world’s most expensive vehicle.
The Indian-made Tata Nano was unveiled in Mumbai with gemstone trimmings and lavish gold and silver jewels at the Tata Theatre in Mumbai and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata was in charge of the unveiling, which occurred on Monday. Ratan Tata’s company also controls Jaguar and Land Rover.
The interesting spectacle was adorned with 176 pounds of 22-karat gold and 33 pounds of silver and various precious and semi-precious stones, including pearls, rubies, pearls, emeralds, the black beads worn by Hindu brides in a necklace and other semi-precious stones. The Wall Street Journal priced the original $3,000 vehicle at $4.6 million dollars with all its trimmings.
At the media event today, there was little mention of August sales figures – at 1,202 units, down 88 percent from April’s 10,012 units, and dipping dangerously close to November 2010’s all-time low of 509. For a car that launched with a 100,000-customer waiting list in 2008, these are dire times indeed.
“Really for the Nano project to make any sense, you need to sell between 15,000 to 20,000 cars every month and have this 15,000-20,000 range for a significantly long time,” Deepesh Rathore, managing director for India at IHS Automotive, told beyondbrics. “Only then will you show any money on behalf of the Nano project – so we’re not anywhere close to that.”
Chariman ot Tata, Ratan Tata himself spent Monday evening at the unveiling at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, but it was CK Venkataraman, COO of Titan’s jewellery division, who put on a show.
The COO of the jewelry division of Titan Industries stated that the Nano was a symbol of “middle-class aspiration” and he believes that the Nano is “something that would appeal in small towns, the core market for Goldplus”. The Tata Nano was designed to bring affordable vehicles to the people in India.
C.V. Venkataraman, the chief operating officer of the jewelry division of Titan Industries, hopes someone will buy this jeweled Tata Nano. The COO stated, “500 years from now that would be quite a family heirloom, wouldn’t it?”
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