Tata Motors mulls selling the Nano online

Tata Motors is finding it difficult to push the Nano hatchback out of showrooms across the country. So, a change in tactic is being mulled at Pimpri, with online sales of the Nano a possible new strategy for the world's least priced car. Since most things around the Nano have been unconventional right from the outset, online selling of the Nano might not come as a surprise to both buyers as well as fans of this affordable hatchback. 

According a report on the BusinessStandard, Tata Motors has already test marketed the Nano online and going forward, the car maker is looking to broaden this initiative. The report goes on to add that car buyers might be able to book the car and pay the initial booking amount online, and get the Nano delivered to their doorsteps or to their nearest Tata dealerships. However, the final payment for the Nano might still have to be made at the dealership.

Although the internet has broken boundaries and democratized information exchange like never before, car sales largely remain confined to physical dealerships even in most developed nations. While Tesla Motors, a perennial outlier, is trying to change the rules of the game by pushing for online sales of cars in the United States, selling cars online is illegal in many states of the USA. Various reports on the Economist: here, here and here, make for interesting reading.  

Coming back to the Nano, while online sales is the latest measure that is aimed at boosting sales of this hatchback, it would be interesting to see whether this initiative actually does anything to boost sales of the world's least priced car. While the latest versions of the Tata Nano, in the form of the 2013 Model Year variants, were unveiled a month ago, the car continues to be a dud seller for Tata Motors.

Although Tata Motors has offered attractive discounts and periodic refreshes of the hatchback, the Nano has failed to sustain the initial momentum generated by such measures for long. The CNG powered Nano, dubbed the Nano E-MAX, due for a launch before the upcoming festive season and the much awaited diesel powered Nano, due for a 2014 launch, will be the two new variants of the car that could generate bigger volumes for Tata Motors.

The Nano factory at Sanand, Gujarat, is operating at less than 20% of its installed capacity of 250,000 cars a year. Tata Motors is looking to build other cars and small commercial vehicles at Sanand in case the Nano's fortunes don't turn around in the next year or two. For now though, the emphasis seems to still be on turning around the Nano, a revolutionary little car that promised to put India on four wheels.