Indian automaker Tata has received so much demand for its new $1,980 Nano microcar that it says it will have to set up a lottery to distribute the first 100,000 vehicles. A computerized selection system will decide who will receive each of the first 100,000 cars when they go on sale April 9.
Tata also announced that the Nano will be available in three different trim levels: base, CX and LX. The LX model will feature fabric seats (as opposed to vinyl), power front windows, central locking, a cell phone charger and a roof-mounted rear spoiler.
The automaker had been forced to delay the Nano – which Indian media is already calling the people’s car of India – due to difficulties securing a production facility. The Nano’s full-time plant, in Gujarat, India, won’t open until 2010, so two existing Tata plants have been shifted to Nano production. The automaker anticipates making about 350,000 Nanos annually when production fully ramps up in Gujarat.
That number might climb, however, when Tata officially launches the Nano Europa in Europe in 2011.
