Tata Motors’ revolutionary low cost small car, the Tata Nano isn’t exactly making waves in the domestic market. But that isn’t stopping Tata Motors from aggressively exporting the Nano to countries across Asia. Tomorrow, the Tata Nano will be launched in Bangladesh, India’s eastern neighbor. Over the past few months, Tata has commenced exports of the Nano and now sells the car in both Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The Nano will be priced at 599,000 Bangladeshi Takas, which in Indian rupees translates to around INR 3.87 Lakhs. This is almost three times the price of least priced base variant of the Nano in India caused mainly due to the very steep 142% duty that Bangladeshi importers have to pay the Bangladeshi government in cases where the car is imported from other countries as a completely built unit(CBU). For now, Tata Motors’ Bangladeshi distributor, Nitol Motors, plans to import 3,000 Nanos into the country to gauge demand.
Tata Nano Hatchback
Going forward, the distributor will import more Nanos if the Bangladeshi car market shows enough demand for the Tata Nano. Exuding optimism about the Nano’s sales in Bangladesh, Abdul Matlub Ahmad, Director of Nitol Motors has had this to say,
We are now taking orders — initially we’ll sell 3,000 Nano cars. We hope it will be a big hit in Bangladesh. The price will come down once we start assembling the car here. If the car becomes popular in Bangladesh, Tata has a plan to manufacture the car locally. We anticipate the Nano will be very popular because it is extremely fuel efficient. You can drive more than 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) with a litre of gasoline.
While the petrol powered Nano is undoubtedly a very fuel efficient car, with an ARAI certified fuel economy figure of 23.6 KMPL, it remains to be seen whether the blend of high fuel economy and practicality will see the Nano becoming a big success in Bangladesh. If that happens, Tata Motors’ Nano exports would ensure that the automaker’s huge investment at the Nano manufacturing plant at Sanand, Gujarat, is utilized well.
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