Tata Motors has just launched a revamped version of its Nano model. The Nano GenX, launched on Tuesday is said to be the augmented version of the original model launched in 2009.
The Nano has performed dismally in terms of sales, right from the moment it was first launched.
Will the GenX revive the Nano’s misfortunes?
What Tata got Wrong: ‘Cheap’ vs ‘Value for Money’
What Nano failed to cater to was the aspirational nature of buyers. Pramod Lad, a car buff says:
A first-time buyer is actually aspiring to move up in society. When Nano gave a perception of being an affordable car, it defeats those aspirations. One would rather buy a Maruti 800 rather than a car that looked like a toy. A first time buyer then thinks: why not put in Rs 50,000 more and buy a sturdier, safer and widely acclaimed car?
–Pramod Lad, Car Enthusiast
In an interview to CNBC’s Managing Asia, Ratan Tata, the former chairman of the Tata Group, admitted that marketing Nano as the world’s cheapest car was a factor in its failure to gain popularity.
I always felt the Nano should have been marketed towards the owner of a two-wheeler because it was conceived to give people who rode on two-wheeler an all-weather, safe form of transportation, not (the) cheapest, It was termed as the cheapest car by the public, and (also) I’m sorry to say, by the company when it was being marketed.
— Ratan Tata, Former Chairman, Tata Group
The original price of the Nano, launched in 2009 was Rs. 1.92 lakh. A good price, except Tata had to give up a lot of things to reach that price.
The major complaints against the Nano have been its cheap quality, bad design, excessive engine noise, and jittery drive among other things. All this hurt the Nano’s image.
The Nano has a small, 600 cc engine that doesn’t run well on highways and puts off a potentially large middle-class customer base.
As Ashima Sharda Mahindra, an Army officer’s wife says:
I would have loved to buy it if I lived in a city. But because I don’t, I do not see myself as a potential buyer (of the Nano) as we do a lot of highway driving.
––Ashima Sharda Mahindra
What really hammered in the last nail in the coffin was the incidents of ‘spontaneous combustion’.
There’s nothing worse that can destroy your brand image more than your product catching fire when its not supposed to.
Welcome Generation X
Tata Motors has launched its next generation Nano called the GenX Easy in Mumbai, pegging the price between Rs 1.99 lakh and Rs 2.89 lakh,
The price is higher than the original Nano’s Rs. 1.92 lakh. So, can it revive Tata’s fortunes? Can it finally attract the two-wheeler customer cohort that it had originally aimed for?
The main difference is that the Nano GenX is being advertised as an up-market product and has some cool features.
It comes equipped with a ‘creep’ function meaning the car does not ‘creep’ forward even when the driver’s foot is off the brake pedal.
But will it be able to lure enough of the aspirational class out there?
Also, there are some issues as Shams Naqvi writes in The Sunday Guardian:
That it doesn’t get front disc brakes and gets only two-point seat belts doesn’t augur well... There’s only so much they can do if they want to keep the price of the car under check.
— Shams Naqvi, The Sunday Guardian
Does the Future Augur Well?
The Tata Nano’s journey from Singur to Sanand has been a tumultuous one. If the stigma of the Tata Nano’s failed marketing and PR is corrected, the Nano GenX could find two-wheeler buyers inching towards its latest launch.
A question to ask though, is the entry of the GenX a little too late for Tata to get rid of the Nano’s cheap image? At the moment only time will tell.
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