tata_nano_03After a prolonged wait, finally, Nano, the people’s car is made available to the customers of India. The car priced at only $2000 is the world’s cheapest car ever made. Like the Model T from Ford in 1909 or the Mini from BMW in 1961, this model may change the perspectives of ordinary people about owning a car. To know everything about this revolutionary car, read on.

The Engineering

  • four-speed gearbox
  • Rear mounted engine
  • All-aluminium, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 Horsepower
  • Multi point fuel injection petrol engine.
  • This is the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft.
  • rear-wheel drive

nano-interior-photo-3The interior is spacious compared to its tiny looks from outside

Safety Standards

  • The Nano’s safety performance exceeds current regulatory requirements in India.
  • Has an all sheet-metal body,
  • It has a strong passenger compartment with crumple zones for impact absorption.
  • Intrusion-resistant doors
  • Seat belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body.
  • Tubeless tyres further enhance safety.

Environment Concerns

  • Tailpipe emission performance beats current regulatory requirements
  • Has a lower overall pollution level than two-wheelers made in India
  • A high fuel efficiency (20 km/liter) ensures low carbon dioxide emissions.
  • We think that the carbon footprint will be less if people use this car as an alternative to their luxury sedans in the city roads.

Variants of the base model

tatanano

Source

Production capacity

Tata Motors will not be able to manufacture more than 50,000 units in the first year in the factory of Pantnagar. After the dedicated factory at Sanand is built, it is expected to deliver 250,000 units per year. But the new factory will be operational no sooner than Jan, 2010.
We estimate Tata Motors to sell 50,000 units and 150,000 units of the Nano in FY2010 and FY2011, respectively
280607-480-359

Booking

You can book nano online or through authorized Car Dealers. Booking can also be made through State Bank of India. This is the first time that they are charging a fee for booking. The booking fee is a nominal Rs. 300 ($6 approx). You can pay for Nano using netbanking.

Advertising Strategy

tata-nano-is-greener-than-most-cars_58102

Tatas are going in a new creative way for the No TV campaign. They are “looking at unconventional mediums like web search, viral marketing and innovative public relations-driven campaigns, where the news in brief is called ‘Nano news’ in some papers and television advertisement breaks are called ‘Nano breaks.’ There will be many more such innovations.”

Launch Date

It was unveiled on 10th January, 2008. Being officially launched now after a production delay of six months due to the Singur Controversy, the car will be on display across the country at Tata Motors Passenger Car dealerships and other select authorized outlets from 1 April 2009. The delivery of the first lot will start from July.

The Singur Controversy

Having said all these technicalities, it will still be incomplete if we don’t talk about Singur controversy in a full report of Tata Nano. The project was initially declared at Singur, 40 km from the West Bengal state capital Kolkata. It had turned into a battleground since march, 2006 because of a controversy. The main reason for the conflict arose from the land acquisition methods of the government now ruled by CPI(M) which acquired 997.11 acre of land which was necessary for the project. Some farmers refused to provide land for them on the question of their livelihood. The opposition party TMC demanded return of 400 acres of land from the acquired land for the farmers unwilling to sacrifice their land for the project. After two and half years, and an Rs. 1500 Crore ($3 Billion approx) already invested in the nearly completely built factory, they had to scrap their plan owing to increased agitation among a group of people.

On Oct 3, 2008 global auto major Tata Motors announced the plant to be shifted to Sanand, Gujarat in western part of India. There they have completed the remaining portion of their work.

In Conclusion…

No matter what, some environmentalists are going against such cheap availability of cars in a country of 1.2 billion consumers as it can prove to be too much for the nature and the govt. to cope up with the pollution and traffic load if and after Nano becomes a hit. But, that shouldn’t refrain us from being proud of what Tata Motors from India have done in perspective of the global automobile scenario.

For any query you can visit  Tata Motors ‘ Contact Page