Overview
The introduction of the Nano received media attention due to it's targeted low price. The car is expected to boost the Indian Economy, create entrepreneurial-opportunities across India[11][12], as well as expand the Indian car market by 65%[13]. The car was envisioned by, Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors, who has described it as an eco-friendly "people's car". Nano has been greatly appreciated by many sources and the media for its low-cost[14][15] and eco-friendly initiatives which include using compressed-air as fuel[16] and an electric-version (E-Nano)[17][18]. Tata Group is expected to mass-manufacture the Nano in large quantities, particularly the electric-version, and, besides selling them in India, to also export them world-wide[19][20][21].
Critics of the car have questioned its safety in India (where reportedly 90,000 people are killed in road-accidents every year[22]), and have also criticised the pollution that it would cause[23] (including criticism by Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist, Rajendra Pachauri[24]). However, Tata Motors has promised that it would definitely release Nano's eco-friendly variants alongside the gasoline-variant[25][26].
Due to opposition to Tata's Singur car-factory by Mamta Banerjee, Tata Motors decided to cease operations in Singur on 2 October 2008 and started manufacturing Tata Nano at its Pantnagar plant. On her protests and the consequent pullout, the media heavily critcised her and The Telegraph even said[27]: "India is being raped by those who profess to be her soldiers, the guardians of peace." Financial Times reported[28]: "If ever there were a symbol of India’s ambitions to become a modern nation, it would surely be the Nano, the tiny car with the even tinier price-tag. A triumph of homegrown engineering, the $2,200 (€1,490, £1,186) Nano encapsulates the dream of millions of Indians groping for a shot at urban prosperity. That process has stalled...No big economy has prospered without undergoing a huge, often brutal, shift of labour from the countryside to cities and from farms to factories...There is a yawning gap with China. India’s information technology and service sector, no matter how dynamic, simply cannot absorb enough labour. To truly shine, India will need millions, perhaps tens of millions, more manufacturing jobs. Why has it not created them?"
Currently, Tata Motors is reportedly manufacturing Nano at its existing Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) plant and a mother plant has been proposed for Sanand Gujarat.[2] The company is hoping to produce 50 Nanos per day in Pantnagar by January–March 2009[29]. Ratan Tata has said that Nano will be brought within set timelines[30]. Not many dealers will be appointed till March 2009. The company will bank on existing dealer network for Nano initially.[31] The new Nano Plant could have a capacity of 5,00,000 units, compared to 3,00,000 for Singur. Gujarat has also agreed to match all the incentives offered by West Bengal government.[32]
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Introduction
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Conception and design
The project to create the world's cheapest production car began in 2003, under the Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan Tata, [33] inspired by the number of Indian families with two-wheeled rather than four-wheeled transport[34]. The Nano's development has been tempered by the company's success in producing the low cost 4 wheeled Ace truck in May 2005.[33]
Contrary to speculation that the car might be a simple four-wheeled auto rickshaw, The Times of India reported the vehicle is "a properly designed and built car".[35] The Chairman is reported to have said, "It is not a car with plastic curtains or no roof — it's a real car."[33]
To achieve its design parameters, Tata has refined the manufacturing process, emphasized innovation and sought new design approaches from suppliers.[35] The car was designed at Italy's Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering — with Ratan Tata requesting certain changes, such the elimination of one of two windscreen wipers.[33]
The Nano has 21% more interior space and an 8% smaller exterior, when compared with its closest rival, the Maruti 800. The car will come in different versions, including one standard and two deluxe variants. The deluxe version will have air conditioning, but no power steering. The car was expected to be produced in the Singur plant in West Bengal, but due to politically-motivated agitations instigated by the Trinamool Congress, mother plant has been shifted to Sanand in Gujarat. The initial production target set by Tata Motors is 250,000 units per year.
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Expectations
According to one report, India as well as other nations, such as European nations[36], have great expectations from the Nano and are keenly and eagerly awaiting it, especially the electric version of the Nano[37], which is expected to be released in 2008[38], making it in all probability the "world's cheapest electric car" officially on record[39][40]. The car itself is expected to boost the Indian Economy as well as expand the Indian car market by 65%, according to rating agency CRISIL.[41]
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Benevolent opportunities for local-entrepreneurs
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Modular design
BusinessWeek says[42][43]:“
The Nano is constructed of components that can be built and shipped separately to be assembled in a variety of locations. In effect, the Nano is being sold in kits that are distributed, assembled, and serviced by local entrepreneurs. As Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group of companies, observed in an interview with The Times of London: "A bunch of entrepreneurs could establish an assembly operation and Tata Motors would train their people, would oversee their quality assurance and they would become satellite assembly operations for us. So we would create entrepreneurs across the country that would produce the car. We would produce the mass items and ship it to them as kits. That is my idea of dispersing wealth. The service person would be like an insurance agent who would be trained, have a cell phone and scooter and would be assigned to a set of customers."
In fact, Tata envisions going even further, providing the tools for local mechanics to assemble the car in existing auto shops or even in new garages created to cater to remote rural customers. With the exception of Manjeet Kripalani, BusinessWeek's India bureau chief, few have focused on this breakthrough element of the Nano innovation (BusinessWeek.com, 1/10/08). ”
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Pricing strategy
Tata initially targeted the vehicle as "the least expensive production car in the world"[5] — aiming for a starting price of 100,000 rupees or approximately $2050 US[44][45] despite rapidly rising material prices.[46]
As of August 2008, material costs have risen from 13% to 23% over the car’s development,[47] and Tata now faces the choice of:
introducing the car with an artificially low price through govt-subsidies and tax-breaks, or
foregoing profit on the car, or
using vertical-integration, or
partially using inexpensive polymers or biodegradable plastics instead of a full metal-body, or
raising the price of the car
An increased price on the Nano will likely decrease demand.[47]
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Release-date This article or section needs to be updated. Please update the article to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished.
As of 30 November 2008, Tata Motors has not yet announced any release-date for the Nano and the future of the car remains uncertain, with some sources expecting it to be released in 2008[48] and others in 2009[citation needed]. Currently, no orders for the car are being taken but it has been announced that Nano will be finally manufactured in Sanand and Pantnagar. Some sources expect Nano's electric- and gasoline-variants to be released in 2008[49], and the diesel-variant in late or mid-2009[50], though both dates remain uncertain due to lack of any official announcement.
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Others
Effect on Indian Economy
Economic Times quotes[51]:“
Tata Nano’s launch could expand the Indian car market by 65%, according to rating agency CRISIL. The low price makes the car affordable for families with incomes of Rs 1 lakh per annum, the agency said. The increase in the market is expected to push up car sales by 20% over the previous year. “The unveiling of Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, triggers an important event in the car market. Based on the statement by company officials, CRISIL Research estimates the consumer price of the car at around Rs 1.3 lakh. This brings down the cost of ownership of an entry level car in India by 30%,” the company said in a report. ”
Thus, the Indian Economy is expected to remain strong and grow in 2008 and beyond, despite the temporary financial turmoil in the US, because the car will also lead to a boost in other sectors of the Indian Economy besides the auto-market.
However, due to the current Singur land dispute, the "Stalled Car Factory" is "Costing Jobs, Splitting Neighbors in West Bengal"[52]
VOANews quotes[53]:“
Tata's problems in West Bengal are scaring off other industries hoping to locate here, including Infosys, a software maker that wants to build a business park that would provide 5,000 jobs.
Kartik Chandra Malik, 57, runs a tea shop near the boundary wall of Tata's Nano factory.
He says he is frustrated that the factory has been stopped. He says wants it to open, because when it is open he can do more business selling tea and biscuits. He is hoping his son, who just graduated from college, will get a good job at the factory.
Many of Malik's neighbors in Barispada are tight-lipped when it comes to talking about Tata's troubles. There is growing tension in the villages near the Tata factory as the protests continue and the plant remains closed. The Tata crisis pits neighbors against each other.
Malik says many of his neighbors are being pressured by opposition groups to protest against the carmaker. But many here already have jobs lined up at the factory or hope to.
A young man at Malik's tea shop said he got a job loading trucks at the Tata plant. For that, many of neighbors have called him a traitor. ”
Guinness Book of World Records
IBN mentioned[54]:“
The ambitious Nano car has not rolled out of the assembly line of the makers Tata's plants yet. But it is already in the Guinness book as the world's cheapest car. ”
Comparison with Model T
Some news-sources have compared Ratan Tata's Tata Nano with Henry Ford's Model T that co-incidentally was built around a century ago. Livemint said[55]:“
Ford Motor Co. is rich because Henry Ford used the assembly-line to produce the Model T in 1908. Ratan Tata is a late entrepreneur, making the Nano in 2008.
India is 100 years behind. But we are waking up to the possibility of catching up. I just hope our planners wake up soon. ”
Times of India mentioned[56]:“
This raises the question: How have the Tatas accomplished such a task? Pursuing this question a fascinating story unfolds that reminds one of Henry Ford's Model T that was built exactly one hundred years ago (September 1908). Ford wanted to make a car for the multitude, not for the elite, with the best material and the best design that the technology of his time could devise, and he wanted to make it, above all, at a price that was affordable. This is the example that Ratan Tata has followed with determination. When he announced the price of his car in an interview to the ‘Financial Times’ during the Geneva Motor Show, his colleagues were 'aghast', but he had set his goal. ”
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Technical specifications
According to Tata Group's Chairman Ratan Tata, the Nano is a 33 PS (33 hp/24 kW) car with a 623 cc rear engine and rear wheel drive, and has a fuel economy of 4.55 L/100 km (21.97 km/L, 51.7 mpg (US), 62 mpg (UK)) under city road conditions, and 3.85 L/100 km on highways (25.97 km/L, 61.1 mpg (US), 73.3 mpg (UK)). It is the first time a two-cylinder non-opposed petrol engine will be used in a car with a single balancer shaft.[57] Tata Motors has reportedly filed 34 patents related to the innovations in the design of Nano, with powertrain accounting for over half of them.[58] The project head, Girish Wagh has been credited with being one of the brains behind Nano's design.[58][59]
Much has been made of Tata's patents pending for the Nano. Yet during a news conference at the New Delhi Auto Expo, Ratan Tata pointed out none of these is revolutionary or represents earth-shaking technology. He said most relate to rather mundane items such as the two-cylinder engine’s balancer shaft, and how the gears were cut in the transmission.
Though the car has been appreciated by many sources, including Reuters due to "the way it has tweaked existing technologies to target an as-yet untapped segment of the market", yet it has been stated by the same sources that Nano is not quite "revolutionary in its technology", just low in price[60]. Moreover, technologies which are expected of the new and yet-to-be-released car include a revolutionary compressed-air fuel system[61] and an eco-friendly electric-version[62], technologies on which Tata is reportedly already working, though no official incorporation-date for these technologies in the new car has been released.
According to Tata, the Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards[63]. Ratan Tata also said, 'The car has passed the full-frontal crash and the side impact crash'.[64]. Tata Nano passed the required 'homologation’ tests with Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).This means that the car has met all the specified criteria for roadworthiness laid out by the government including emissions or noise & vibration and can now ply on Indian roads. Tata Nano managed to score around 24 km per litre during its ‘homologation’ tests with ARAI. This makes Tata Nano the most fuel efficient car in India. Nano will be the first car in India to display the actual fuel mileage figures it recorded at ARAI’s tests on its windshield. According to ARAI it conforms to Euro IV emission standards which will come into effect in India in 2010.[65]
Rear mounted engine
The use of a rear mounted engine to help maximize interior space makes the Nano similar to the original Fiat 500, another technically innovative "people's car". A concept vehicle similar in styling to the Nano, also with rear engined layout was proposed by the UK Rover Group in the 1990s to succeed the original Mini but was not put into production.[66] The eventual new Mini was much larger and technically conservative. The independent, and now-defunct, MG Rover Group later based their Rover CityRover on the Tata Indica.
Tata is also reported to be contemplating offering a compressed air engine as an option [67]
