Tata Motors UK

Sales of the car in India however have begun to trail off, with Tata reporting a low figure of 1'202 unit shipped in August, down from 10’032 units in April this year.

And despite Chief Executive Ratan Tata's hope that the car would be export-ready before now, the Nano remains absent from streets in Europe and the US.

The birth of the very cheap car

You would think there would be a place for a very cheap new car in the British marketplace.

And yet Tata is the sort of brand which attracts only derision from the more populist British motoring press. Stripped as it is of all design and luxury pretensions, the Tata Nano is not a car as we know it. It rides up against the continuing tendency of new Western European cars to become ever more bloated and luxurious, despite economic and environmental signs that this may not be sustainable for ever.

And it seems that the no-nonsense motoring values that the Nano brings to market are not so appealing to the Indian consumer either.

Reputation counts

What seems like a fundamental flaw in the marketing of the car has seen the Nano acquire a reputation similar to that of early Skoda in Europe.

Rather than the proud owner of a local engineering success story, nobody in India wants to be known as an owner of the world’s cheapest car. This is especially true in an increasingly globalized, socially aspirational country.

Significant marketing efforts then are required to re-place the vehicle as the engineering success story that it undoubtedly is.

Jaguar Cars save the day

And as the Nano continues to provide Tata with a headache there is no doubt it should be pleased with its acquisition and management of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Since the 200 purchase from Ford JLR has become solidly profitable and the main driver of growth at Tata Motors.

Tata is, perhaps surprisingly, the UK’s largest motor manufacturer, employing in excess of 40’000 and bringing jobs and investment to the traditional home of the UK car industry in the West Midlands.

And now fears about asset-stripping have been allayed the British - and not least the British Government - seem to be coming around to the idea of foreign ownership. Even foreign management (see our blog post on Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, here) is broadly palatable. Whether in time they come around to the idea of the Nano and its like is a very different question.