Tata puts temporary stop on Nano's production

After six months of irregular functioning at the Sanand plant, Tata Motors has now officially put up a temporary stop to Nano's manufacturing. The decision comes as a result for the low market demand and increasing stocks, plus the on-going process of re-tooling process to manufacture a festive version of Nano.

At the same time, the facility is also being rejigged in a process to manufacture auto major's forthcoming hatchbacks and sedans based on the much anticipated 'Kite' platform. Most likely to arrive early next year, the first product from the line-up will compete with the likes of Maruti Suzuki Celerio.

"The company has had to take some tough measures. This includes keeping the plant shut instead of pushing inventory and incurring further loss. The company has been producing 2000 to 2400 cars every month for the last 6 months, but a zero schedule for June was a surprise," spokesperson from Tata Motors said. "As with all our plants, the Sanand facility is closed as per annual planning for routine upgrades, maintenance and adding of tooling flexibility for new variants. The period for this kind of maintenance work may vary and range from 3-6 weeks," he added.

Built with a huge investment of INR 2,000 crore, the Sanand plant has a capacity to produce one Nano in a minute. But in FY-14 Nano's production was limited to 21,538 units, which is infact, just ten percent of total annual capacity. And currently, the company holds an inventor of at least 8,000 to 10,000 cars with some remaining stock of even the last year.

Just few months back, Tata introduced a power-steering version of the Nano, christened as 'Twist'. And for keeping the momentum flowing, Tata recently introduced a CNG version of the people's car. Though, these cars tried to push the sales meter ticking but weren't able to meet up the expectations. Nano is powered by the 624cc, inline twin cylinder mill produces 38PS @ 5,500rpm and 51Nm @ 4,000rpm, geared to a 4-speed box and claims an efficiency of 25 kmpl. With a starting price tag of almost INR 2 lakh for the base, this people's car ranges upto INR 2.60 lakh for the recently introduced CNG variant.

Source: ET

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