World's Cheapest Car Is Launched

The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, has been launched in India.

Costing just 100,000 rupees ($1,979; £1,366), the Nano will now go on sale across India next month, with deliveries starting in July.

Tata hopes the 10-foot (3-metre) long, five-seater car will be cheap enough to encourage millions of Indians to trade up from their motorcycles.

Tata owner Ratan Tata has described the Nano as a "milestone". Analysts say it will not make a profit for six years.

Tata's managing director Ravi Kant said that from the first orders, a ballot would then select the initial 100,000 people to get their Nano.
"I think we are at the gates of offering a new form of transport to the people of India and later, I hope, other markets elsewhere in the world," Mr Tata added.
"I hope it will provide safe, affordable four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car."
Environmentalists are warning that the Nano will add to India's already clogged up roads, and pollution levels will soar. Tata says the Nano will be the least polluting car in India.

The four-door Nano has a 33bhp, 624cc engine at the rear.
The basic model has no airbags, air conditioning, radio, or power steering. However, more luxurious versions will be available.
A slightly bigger European version, the Nano Europa is due to follow in 2011, and is expected to cost nearer to £4,000.

Analysts said that if the car proves an immediate hit in its home market, Tata may struggle to meet demand.
This is because the main Nano factory in the western state of Gujarat, which will be able to build 250,000 cars a year, is not due to open until next year.
In the meantime, Tata will only be able to build about 50,000 Nanos at its existing plants.

The delay happened when Tata had to abandon plans to build the Nano in a new plant in the eastern state of West Bengal due to a row over land acquired from farmers.
This caused the launch of the Nano to be put back by six months.

Even if Tata can sell 250,000 models a year, it will add only 3% to the firm's revenues, says Vaishali Jajoo, auto analyst at Mumbai's Angel Broking.
"That doesn't make a significant difference to the top line," he said.
"And for the bottom line, it will take five to six years to break even."
Yet with seven million motorcycles sold last year in India, Tata is eyeing a huge marketplace for the Nano.

Like almost all global carmakers, Tata has seen sales fall as the global economic downturn has continued.
The firm made a 2.63bn rupees loss for three months between October and December.
In addition, Tata is struggling to refinance the remaining £2bn of its £3bn loan it took out to buy the Jaguar and Land Rover brands from Ford in June of last year.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7957671.stm

Published: 2009/03/23 17:52:13 GMT


Nano: Triumph of Indian ingenuity

India's Tata Motors has launched Nano, the world's cheapest car. Hormazd Sorabjee, one of the first journalists to test drive the car, says it feels more expensive than it is.

I have to admit I had a nagging fear that the Tata Nano wouldn't live up to the media frenzy that's been surrounding it.
It's been the most awaited car in the world and the delay in putting it on the road - due to the relocation of its production facilities - only increased the sense of anticipation.


Now, 14 months after the Nano was unveiled to a reception fit for a rock star, the moment of truth has come for the world's cheapest car.
There's been an apprehension that Tata's self-imposed price target of 100,000 rupees ($1,979, £1,366) would make the Nano an apology of a car and sceptics expected a glorified golf cart.
However, after driving the Nano in the western Indian city of Pune - home to Tata Motors - on the highway and rural back roads, it's turned out to be quite the opposite.

The Nano feels significantly more expensive than it is and a car you certainly won't be ashamed to sit in.
Questions like, "Is it a proper car?" can be dismissed once and for all.
Getting in and out of the Nano is easier than in an Mercedes S-class and that's no exaggeration. The doors open wide and high seats allow you to slide onto them with the utmost ease.

The well-designed but basic interiors are far from Merc luxury, but you can't miss "luxury" touches like front-power windows and air-conditioning on the deluxe version - which must be another first on such a cheap vehicle.
The seats are flat and hard with simple, hard-wearing fabrics designed like a seat in a bus.

Don't forget that in India, if a car is officially a five-seater, it's unofficially twice that number - which leads me to another great thing about the Nano - its ability to take heavy loads.
For a car that weighs a mere 600kg, the Nano feels incredibly robust.
You expect the doors to rattle, the seats to squeak and those dinner-plate sized wheels to buckle driving over rough Indian roads.
But instead, the Nano feels rigid, well-screwed together and deftly darts from one pothole to another with ease.

The suspension copes with any sort of surface and the Nano's massive ground clearance can shame some off-roaders.
As expected in a car with such dinky proportions, the ride does get a bit choppy on uneven surfaces and there's a tendency for the nose to bob up and down but those graduating from a scooter won't have cause to complain.
Crank the Nano's 623cc engine and it fires with a muffled "pud, pud, pud". The thrum of a two-cylinder motor is obvious but again, it doesn't make the racket I expected.
It feels sprightly off the mark and comfortably keeps up with the flow of city traffic.

In fact, the more crowded the street, the better the Nano gets. The turning circle is astonishing, possibly the tightest on any car. The ability to hang a U-turn on any street, the high-seating position and great all-round visibility only add to the Nano's user-friendliness.

But while the Nano feels completely at home in a congested, low-speed driving environment, it's out of sorts on an open road.
The little Tata runs out of puff quite quickly and progress after 70kph (44mph) is painfully slow and top speed is limited to 105kph.
This certainly isn't a highway car but that's not going to stop people from using it as one.

That's the concern Tata engineers had as well and have worked quite hard to ensure that it's fairly stable with a full load at maximum speed.
The brakes are reasonably effective as well and do the job. I had to keep reminding myself that I was driving a car that costs just over 100,000 rupees to judge the Nano in the right perspective.
It thrilled me with its "proper car" feel and I also learnt to forgive it for its shortcomings. I can live with the ridiculously small 15-litre fuel tank because the car's phenomenal efficiency (18-20 kilometres to a litre) would give it decent range.

However, I would have liked a bit more power to make overtaking less of a planned operation and the glass to open at the rear like a conventional hatch. The only way to put the handful of bags in the Nano's "boot" is by flipping the rear seats forward. I found that cumbersome and annoying.

Of course, for this incredible price the Nano is bound to have compromises but the brilliance of this car lies in the way Tata has finely judged exactly what Nano buyers expect and what they don't.

That's where the foreign car companies would fail. The Nano, made by pocket science and not rocket science, is a triumph of Indian ingenuity.
The author is the editor of Autocar India, the country's leading motoring magazine.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7958498.stm

Published: 2009/03/23 15:10:25 GMT