Billed as the world’s cheaper car at its launch in 2008, Tata Motors has stated that it will neither invest nor upgrade the Tata Nano to meet the BS-VI pollution norms, reports Press Trust of India.

This announcement indicates that the company will end the update cycle of the car and stop its production and sale after 1 April 2020, when the new Bharat Stage VI standards kick in.

“Nano is produced at our Sanad plant (Gujarat)....in January new safety norms came, in April some more new norms will come and in October new safety norms will come and BS-VI is going to happen from April 1 of 2020, so all products may not meet (BS-VI norms) and we may not invest in upgrading all the products...and Nano is one of them," said President of Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, Mayank Pareek.

Ill-Fated People’s Car?

Tata Nano, which opened for public bookings in 2009, was priced at Rs 1 lakh and was promoted as an affordable car for the Indian masses. However, since its launch, the model was mired in controversies like cost escalations and political agitation around land acquisition in West Bengal.

Ex-Tata Sons chairman Mistry even went on to claim that Nano was a loss-making adventure for Tata and it "consistently lost value, peaking at Rs 1,000 crore". He added that there was "no line of sight to profitability for the Nano, any turnaround strategy."

Tata Motors sold only three units of the model in June 2018 as against 167 units in June 2017.

Also Read: Tatas Learn Key Lesson As Nano Heads For Sunset: Indians Want Affordability, Not Cheap