Tata Motors has not produced a single unit of its entry-level car Nano in the first nine months of 2019 but sold just one unit in February in the domestic market although it is yet to officially announce that the model has been discontinued.

The company has so far been maintaining that no decision has been made yet on the future of the Nano saying production planning of a car isa "conscious management of demand, system inventory and planned efficiencies".It has, however, admitted that in its current form the Nano will not meet the new safety regulations and BS-VI emission norms.As perregulatory filings by the company, there was no production and sales of the Nano in the domestic market in September this year making it the ninth consecutive month that Tata Motors has not produced the small car.

After selling just one unit in February this year, the company has also not sold a single unit of the Nano in the rest of the months of the year so far, according to the filings.Nano, which was unveiled inJanuary 2008 at the Auto Expo with much expectations of being the people's car,could not live up to the billing. Its sales have been dwindling over the years.

In the January-September period 2018, Tata Motors hadproduced a total of 297 units and sold 299 units of the Nano in the domesticmarket, according to the filings.On the issue of discontinuing the Nano, TataMotors has insisted that "Decisions on product life cycle is a holisticview taken after considering the market developments, regulations and emergingcompetitive landscape. Any such decisions are announced as and when it'staken".

Company officials had, however, hinted that production andsales of the Nano would stop from April 2020 as Tata Motors has no plans toinvest further on Ratan Tata’s dream car to meet strict emission norm underBharat Stage-VI and other safety regulations.The Nano was launched in themarket in March 2009 with an initial price of close to Rs 1 lakh for the basicmodel despite cost escalations, with Tata insisting that "a promise is apromise".

However, from the beginning, Nano courted trouble. It wasoriginally planned to be rolled out from Tata Motors' proposed plant at Singurin West Bengal, where it faced intense political and farmer protests againstland acquisition. The company had to shift its production to a new plant atSanand in Gujarat.Instances of the car catching fire initially after it waslaunched didn't help its cause either.Tata had admitted that the company madethe mistake of promoting the Nano as 'the cheapest car'.

It become a loss-making model for Tata Motors with ex-TataSons chairman Mistry, who was abruptly removed from the post, even went on toclaim that the Nano "consistently lost value, peaking at Rs 1,000crore".Mistry also termed the Nano as one of the "legacy hotspots"and there was "no line of sight to profitability for the Nano, anyturnaround strategy".He had also claimed that Tata Motors did not stopproducing the car due to "emotional reasons.