After the much-awaited and slightly-delayed Tata Nano was finally launched on March 23rd this year it was on proud display all over Tata Motors showrooms, Westside and Croma stores where about 14 lakh people flocked to get a first hand closer look at the car. Now that's a huge number, but wait till you read the rest of it!

Tata Motors has recorded a total of over 2.03 lakh fully paid bookings for the Nano which amounts to a whopping Rs 2500 crores in booking amounts alone. According to sources 70% of these were financed while the rest were fully paid in cash. The Tata Nano was also made available to the people through the world wide web and ever since its launch the website has received almost a million hits a day upto the booking closure period on April 25th amounting to a total of 30 million hits! About 4000 cash bookings were made online - which, for India is an unprecedented first as far as online car sales are concerned.

Out of the total bookings received, the first 1 lakh successful allottees will be chosen through a random computerised program. The rest of the applicants have the option of retaining their booking amounts on which they will earn an interest. Those applicants who do not wish to retain their bookings will be refunded. Tata Motors plans to start deliveries by July 2009 and finish off by the last quarter of 2010.

Out of the 2.03 lakh bookings received, 20% are for the base Nano, 30% for the Nano CX and 50% for the top-of-the-line Nano LX.