Nano buyers face long wait for new Tata car

Hundreds of thousands of Indians will rush to book one of Tata Motors' £1400 Nano cars, launched today. But they must win a lottery to actually get their hands on one, the firm revealed.

The company will accept bookings for just 16 days from 9 April and, within two months, the lucky 100,000 will be chosen through "a computerised random selection procedure". Even then, the winners may have to wait well into next year as the new Nano factory Tata is building will not be finished until the year end, and the stand-in plant near Delhi can only produce 50,0 00 cars at full capacity.

Chairman Ratan Tata admitted the delay could be difficult. "You don't want someone to wait too long for his car," he said. "It's like waiting for a pretty woman: wait too long and she will become old, and perhaps fat."