After a lot of yes and no,it is becoming clear that Maruti indeed is worried about the impact the Tata nano can have on Maruti Suzuki. In order to allay fears that Maruti would be caught on the wrong foot as and when the Nano comes on the roads,Maruti has displayed to bankers a stripped down version which in terms of pricing would be very close to the Tata Nano.
How Maruti have achieved this low pricing is unknown but an already stripped down car the Maruti 800 is said to have been further stripped down.The ex-showroom price of this model is around Rs.75,000 cheaper than existing model and should be available for a price tag of around Rs.1.2-1.5 lakhs ex-showroom pricing.
Now its pretty much established that the one lakh tag for nano cannot stay on for long and what should help Maruti would be the supply demand mismatch which Tata are bound to face.Also until 2010 atleast the Nano will have no rival other than the Maruti 800.
However I would really love to see what Maruti mean by a stripped down version of the Maruti 800.
[Source: Business Standard]
