金融观察：印度塔塔推出全球最廉价汽车

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.

塔塔汽车(Tata Motors)昨日决定于4月份推出全球最廉价汽车Nano，希望通过放手一搏，扭转其销售额不断的下跌趋势。

这家负债累累的印度最大汽车制造商表示，起价为10万卢比（合1948美元）的迷你汽车Nano将于4月份开始销售，长达数月的推迟将就此结束。此前，印度东部加尔各答市附近原厂房的政治冲突迫使该公司迁移了工厂。

普华永道(PwC)汽车业务主管阿卜杜尔•玛济德(Abdul Majeed)表示：“这是一场不错的赌博。如果这能为他们带来赢利，就可能会扭转他们的命运。”

印度塔塔集团公司董事长拉丹•塔塔(Ratan Tata)承诺，他将生产出一款足够廉价的汽车，吸引低收入印度家庭放弃摩托车，转而购买汽车。由于这项承诺，塔塔吸引了世界的关注。

塔塔汽车是印度最大的卡车制造商和第三大汽车制造商，该公司被迫开始在印度西部的古吉拉特为Nano建设一家新工厂。

出现这些麻烦之际，塔塔汽车正在努力偿还去年收购福特(Ford)英国汽车品牌捷豹(Jaguar)和陆虎(Land Rover)时欠下的30亿美元债务。