Tata Motors yesterday set April as the launch date for the Nano, the world's cheapest car, in a bold gamble that India's largest automaker hopes will revive its plummeting sales.
The heavily-indebted group said the mini-car, whose price would start at Rs100,000 ($1,948), would go on sale in April, ending months of delays after political strife at its original plant near Calcutta, eastern India, forced it to shift the factory.
“This is a good gamble,” said Abdul Majeed, head of automotive practice at PwC. “If this pays off for them, it could turn around their fortunes.”
Ratan Tata, chairman of India's Tata conglomerate, caught the world's imagination with his pledge to produce a car cheap enough to lure lower-income Indian families off their scooters and into cars for the first time.
Tata Motors, which is India's biggest truck maker and third largest car manufacturer, was forced to begin building a new factory for the Nano in Gujarat, western India.
These troubles have come as Tata Motors is struggling to repay $3bn in debt incurred during its acquisition of Ford's UK-based Jaguar and Land Rover marques last year.
參考譯文：
塔塔汽車(Tata Motors)昨日決定于4月份推出全球最廉價(jià)汽車Nano，希望通過放手一搏，扭轉(zhuǎn)其銷售額不斷的下跌趨勢。
這家負(fù)債累累的印度最大汽車制造商表示，起價(jià)為10萬盧比（合1948美元）的迷你汽車Nano將于4月份開始銷售，長達(dá)數(shù)月的推遲將就此結(jié)束。此前，印度東部加爾各答市附近原廠房的政治沖突迫使該公司遷移了工廠。
普華永道(PwC)汽車業(yè)務(wù)主管阿卜杜爾?瑪濟(jì)德(Abdul Majeed)表示：“這是一場不錯(cuò)的賭博。如果這能為他們帶來贏利，就可能會扭轉(zhuǎn)他們的命運(yùn)?！?/SPAN>
印度塔塔集團(tuán)公司董事長拉丹?塔塔(Ratan Tata)承諾，他將生產(chǎn)出一款足夠廉價(jià)的汽車，吸引低收入印度家庭放棄摩托車，轉(zhuǎn)而購買汽車。由于這項(xiàng)承諾，塔塔吸引了世界的關(guān)注。
塔塔汽車是印度最大的卡車制造商和第三大汽車制造商，該公司被迫開始在印度西部的古吉拉特為Nano建設(shè)一家新工廠。
出現(xiàn)這些麻煩之際，塔塔汽車正在努力償還去年收購福特(Ford)英國汽車品牌捷豹(Jaguar)和陸虎(Land Rover)時(shí)欠下的30億美元債務(wù)。
（轉(zhuǎn)載）
