Why is Nano not selling?

This question has been bogging me ever since I read the news that they have been able to sell only 500 odd Nanos for the month of November. This is a figure which has surprised many, including me given the fact that Nano is the cheapest car in the world. Nano had in fact brought India and the Indian automobile industry into highlight as no other event had dine earlier, there were worries that Indian roads will soon be full of Nanos and the already congested road infrastructure would fall apart . I myself has written a post earlier in how Nano is perhaps a car for the BOP consumer..

I tried speaking to a few others to understand the possible reasons for the low sales, I will just briefly list the possible reasons ,

Price on road is much higher than the initially 1 lakh tag and many consumer feel that they can always upgrade to a Alto by stretching a bit more.
Not being seen as a car , because of it's looks and the fact that it cannot be driven beyond a certain speed..
The fire incidents have only added to the perception of quality and safely issue with the car.
Inadequate credit facility to push the sales of the car, especially to be upgrade the two-wheeler owner to upgrade (he is the target consumer)
Maybe the car buyer in India has upgraded, they don’t want to buy a low-priced car and would want to start with the next level of cars.
The issue of low-price itself could be the one which is hampering the sales, as a car is seen as a status symbol and a low-priced car defeats that basic purpose of owning a car.
Even the issue of delayed deliveries may have added to the problems and many consumer have felt disheartened by the long waiting periods initially..

I might have left out some more reasons, but still find it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that in country of our size a product like Nano could not find more than 500 buyers, I think there is bound to be some thing is not getting covered, and perhaps in the coming days we will be able to understand the issue better...

Even Carl-Peter Forster, managing director and CEO, Tata Motors said “These are new ways of marketing the Nano. To be frank, we are learning as we do. We market a passenger car to customers that are either never there to dream of a passenger car or they couldn’t afford a passenger car. It’s a very different way of marketing. It means new channels for the dealers.”

Raining Cars in India

I have written earlier that cars and economic growth were connected, at least they were during the last fifty years , though now things are changing. But even then one can observe how the increasing prosperity in India is getting reflected in the type and number of cars which are plying on the roads today. Every month we find that the car sales touching a new record level in terms of numbers , and the only aberration perhaps would be the low sales figure of Nano in November, apart from that for almost every car company sales have been good..

The segment which saw maximum activity in the initial days of liberalization was the entry level, the 800's , Alto's and Santro's, but now the focus is slowly shifting to the next level which is defined by cars like Swift, i10, i20. And we have a lot of players who are looking at this segment which is just above the entry level. Players like Toyota and Honda have their new cars entering this segment and knowing both the companies and their reputation one can foresee the life of entrenched players like Maruti and Hyundai getting more and more difficult in the coming days and the consumer spoilt for choice. Toyota Etios is predicted to be a game changer in the segment ...

At one time a company like Maruti could afford to continue with the same model for more than two decades, but those are days which have gone and the marketer of today can hardly afford to relax, he has to respond and be on the treadmill of continuous improvement to just retain its place in the market...