India's Tata Motors has reported a net loss of $520 million (25.05 billion rupees) for the fiscal year ending in March of 2009. Over the same period one year earlier, Tata managed to earn 21.68 billion rupees in profit. What gives? Naturally, the global economic meltdown didn't do the automaker any favors, but the main problem can be sourced back to the poor performance of Jaguar and Land Rover, which the Indian automaker purchased from Ford last year with the help of a $3 billion bridge loan.

The fact that Jaguar Land Rover accounted for $504 million of that $520 million total loss means that more job cuts and plant shutdowns are in store for the ailing British duo. Says Tata Vice Chairman Ravi Kant:

We have sent people on sabbatical, gone for cheaper low-cost country sourcing and tight control in cash flows, and are assisting JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) for a major belt tightening.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Tata was in search of some £1 billion ($1.5B) in cash and underwriting help to pump into the JLR operations.



[Source: Reuters]

Interest in the world's most affordable new car has been very strong, as Tata Motors reportedly received 206,000 applications for the $2,500 Nano. Due to production constraints, Tata ran a lottery to determine which of the applicants would receive one of the first 100,000 Nanos, and the Indian automaker is informing the "winners" in person.

The first 100,000 customers eligible to receive a Nano will get their car by the end of 2010, with deliveries beginning in July. The first allotment of 100,000 Nanos will be price protected to remain consistent with Tata's press release in March. Of the 106,000 Tata customers left out in the cold (for now) 51,000 chose not to keep their names in contention for future Nano lotteries. Those customers will be offered discounts on other Tata products.

The remaining 55,000 customers that are still in contention for future Nano lotteries are also being offered discounts. Since Tata collected a "booking fee" for the right to enter the lottery, that money will collect 8.5% interest if the Nano is delivered withing two years, and 8.75% if it takes longer than two years.



[Source: Telegraph India]

Looks like Tata Motors is trying to get the Nano into U.S. dealerships by 2011. India's largest domestic automaker thinks "the world's cheapest car" could do well here, especially given our nation's economic conditions right now. The car will likely not be as cheap when it is re-engineered to meet U.S. crash and emissions standards, but it should still be inexpensive enough to attract quite a few buyers.

There remain a couple of big roadblocks, however. First of all, how do you re-engineer the car so quickly, and secondly, where do you sell it on these shores? Rumors of distribution through Jaguar/Land Rover dealers was quickly dispelled, so that's where Fiat-Chrysler may come in, argues New York Times correspondent Nick Kurczewski.

The logic proceeds as follows: Fiat and Tata already collaborate on several joint ventures. They share a huge factory in India. Tata sells Fiats in India. Tata gets to use Fiat diesel engines and Tata developed a pickup truck that will be sold as a Fiat as well. Adding Chrysler into the mix at least helps with distribution and possibly with engineering help for a speedy conversion to U.S. standards.

Kurczewski argues that the American market Nano could even revive the Autobianchi name for Fiat, as the Italian carmaker has expressed an interest in launching an entry-level brand below Fiat. A Fiat-Chrysler Nano would go a long way toward meeting the EPA's new 35 mpg standards, even after it's upgraded with air bags and possibly a more powerful three-cylinder engine to please American drivers.

[Source: New York Times]

Americans may have the opportunity to welcome the Tata Nano to their shores in just over two years, according to a confirmation from David Good, a U.S. rep for the Indian automaker. Before it arrives, Tata assures that the ultra-cheap compact with a base price of just $2500 will be configured to meet all emission and crash standards. If successful, we could see see versions of the Indian microcars running on biofuel and diesel.

But who will distribute the teensy Tatas? Well, that's up in the air right now. A brand-new dealer network for the brand has been discussed. Another option would be selling the Nano through Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships -- the Indian automaker owns both, after all. That long shot was quickly dismissed by Stuart Schorr, a spokesman for Jaguar Land Rover, before the repercussions could sink in.




[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

We don't know how many times through the millennia one gentleman has told another, "Be careful with her – she's beautiful, but she's expensive." We would like to know if Alan Mullaly offered that warning to Ratan Tata (above) before the latter bought Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR). As with the Blue Oval before it, Tata Motors is about to throw billions at the English luxury marques and it is looking for help doing it.

Tata wanted the British government to guarantee a £340 million loan ($515M USD) Tata received from the European Investment Board. The government refused to underwrite the entire amount, and it was written that the government additionally wanted Tata to invest up to another £400M ($605M) in JLR (on top of the £900M ($1.36B) Tata pitched in last summer) and put £50M ($76B) on the table before it would underwrite anything. The government is also said to have wanted veto power on top executive choices and labor plans.

Those talks, unsurprisingly, went nowhere. Now Tata is looking to banks for £1 billion ($1.5B) in cash and underwriting help. Citigroup is has begun the search for lenders to provide the money by September, which everyone expects to come with heavy-duty interest rates. With the state of the market and Tata's other recent purchases, 2009 is shaping up as an expensive year for the Indian company.

[Source: Global Motors | Image: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty]

The Nano is off to a smashing start, with Tata reportedly claiming it has already received 500,000 application forms since the car went on sale April 9. Tata Motors sent out order forms to 30,000 locations throughout India, and charged 300 rupees ($6.00 in US funds) to anyone that filled out the form. Tata Motors has generated the equivalent of $3 million so far, and interested parties have until April 25 to order their own Nano. The company is expecting between 750,000 and one million orders by the deadline, giving the Indian automaker up to $6 million in income without making a single vehicle. The State Bank of India, which has about 25% of the total orders to date, will finance the Nano for up to seven years at interest rate of 10%.

One million pre-order applications is a mighty impressive sum for the $2,500 micro car, and it's a number that Tata Motors doesn't even intend to hit in the Nano's initial batch. Tata will fill 100,000 orders in the first tranche, and it intends to hold a raffle to see which of the orders will get fulfilled. Tata Motors will begin delivering the Nano this July.



[Source: Business-Standard via Indian Autos Blog]

Tata knew pent-up demand for its super-cheap Nano would be so high in advance of its official delivery date that the Indian automaker set up an unique pre-ordering system allowing potential customers to sign up with booking forms. After all these forms have been collected, a computer will randomly choose the first 100,000 people to take possession in July.

That process began just five days ago on April 1st, and Tata has already sold over 51,000 booking forms to its dealer network and individual customers, with another 30,000 or so being taken from a number of Tata partners. Each order form is being sold for 300 Rupees, which is about $6.00 in U.S. funds. Prices for individual Nanos are reportedly ranging from between 95,000 and 145,000 Rupees ($1,880 to $2,780), which officially makes this the World's Cheapest Car.

One thing seems sure: Tata is going to sell a ton of these cars. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on your particular viewpoint. It's almost a certainty that people will be safer in the four-wheeled enclosed Nano than on the little scooters and cycles they are currently riding, but a number of environmental groups have voiced concerns over the impact this many new cars will have on their surroundings. Regardless of how this ultimately plays out, this is only the beginning.



[Source: Economic Times]

Ratan Tata bought Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) expecting to pick them up and help them fly. Instead, as with nearly every other car manufacturer, he's having to dig them out of a deepening hole. From last December through next month, 1,800 employees have either been laid off, released or asked to leave. According to Tata, if the UK government doesn't give JLR £500 million ($715 million USD) in loan guarantees, more people will have to go.

The government appears to be passing on the request, having already given Land Rover a £27 million ($38 million USD) loan to help it create the LRX. Even as the government is continuing to help JLR secure bank financing, the line on JLR's new request for loan guarantees is that "the primary responsibility for short-term financing or longer-term restructuring rests with the parent company." Hat tip to Leonard



[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

Now that Tata's tiny little Nano is officially on sale, a number of media outlets around the world have found themselves behind the wheel, pouring over the positives and negatives associated with driving such an inexpensive vehicle. Interestingly, most of the reviews we've seen have been highly favorable. As it turns out, the World's Cheapest Car is just that – a real car. And it's a surprisingly decent one at that according to a motoring journalist from Autocar India who captured his initial thoughts on video.

We got a good chuckle from the reviewer's assertion that if the Germans had built the Nano, they would have added too much stuff to it and made their version just as expensive as the MINI, while if the Americans were behind the Nano, we would've priced it right below the competition and took away its striking price point. Is that funny because it reinforces stereotypes or because it's true? Click past the break to watch the video in full and decide for yourself.



[Source: Autocar via Jalopnik]

Could an extremely inexpensive, minuscule little car like the Tata Nano actually sell in America, a land historically enamored with powerful V8 engines surrounded by as much sheetmetal as possible? According to the Financial Times, Tata Motors may be about to find out, as the Indian automaker is said to be looking at an introduction into the U.S. market by 2011 or 2012.

What makes Ratan Tata, chairman of the automaker that bears his name, think that his diminutive rear-engined machine might sell in the United States? The economy, of course. Americans may be willing to accept some of the sacrifices that would go hand-in-hand with owning the World's Cheapest Car, though the version likely to sell in the States would surely differ in major ways from what is now on sale in India.

If the Tata Nano were to hit the U.S. market, it would need to pass the same safety and emissions regulations as any other car currently sold in America. Those are not insurmountable tasks, however, as proven by the version of the Nano that's planned for European markets.

So far, there is no indication of how much a Tata Nano would cost in U.S. dollars if it were sold here.



[Source: Financial Times]