Nano Car Launch In Mumbai

MUMBAI — Amid camera flashes and the occasional shoving match between photographers, specifications and on-sale dates for the highly anticipated Tata Nano were finally announced at two elaborate media events here on Monday.

“We have made a promise and we have kept that promise,” Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, said during the first press gathering, held in the Taj Hotel.

The promise Mr. Tata was referring to was his ambitious goal to build a car with a starting price of only 100,000 Indian rupees ($2,000 tata nano). While the Nano does meet its highly aggressive (and what many industry experts once deemed as totally unrealistic) price point, some hurdles remain to be cleared.

The Nano has been nicknamed “The People’s Car” because its starting price will make it accessible to more Indians than any other new car on the market. But the ultra-cheap, ultra-compact Nano comes with no frills. It runs on a 623-cc 2-cylinder engine with about 30 horsepower. Power steering and power brakes are optional on the base model. Airbags, antilock brakes and even a radio aren’t available at all.

The official launch of the tiny four-door car, however, was hardly lacking in pomp and ceremony. And perhaps lost amid the canapés and five-star service of the Taj Hotel (which is owned by the Tata Group and was a target of last year’s terrorist attacks) was the fact that, despite appearances, the Nano isn’t exactly on sale yet.

The first models arrive in dealer showrooms in early April. Application forms to register to buy the car will be accepted from April 9-25. And for the first time in company history, Tata Motors will charge a fee (about $6) to anyone who applies to buy the car.

First deliveries of the Nano to customers will occur in July. This news comes after what has already been more than six months of production delays. Political protests over the company’s land acquisition methods forced Tata to abandon a nearly complete factory built for Nano production in the state of West Bengal. Rather than risk provoking the situation, Tata decided to base Nano production elsewhere.

Source: NyTimes

Tata Nano - Indian people's car

As published in The Daily Telegraph, London on January 11th, 2008.

India is one of those developing countries whose economies are expected to be among the world leaders by the middle of this century. Its technological skill and financial clout have already made an impact in the IT industry and the international cricketing arena, to take just two examples. But the unveiling of Tata Motors' Nano car in New Delhi yesterday marks a new level of Indian achievement.

The headline news is that the Nano will cost only pounds 1,300, thus opening a potentially huge market in the developing world. But Tata has also stolen a march on giant vehicle manufacturers such as GM, Ford, Toyota, VW, Mitsubishi and Renault-Nissan, all of which are looking to expand sales in Asia, Africa and Latin America at a time when the European and American markets are, respectively, flat and declining.

Tata has produced a car that not only costs pounds 500 less than the cheapest Chinese model, but also breaks technological ground by having a rear-mounted two-cylinder engine, which both saves fuel and creates interior space. It has taken out more than 34 patents on technologies used in its manufacture. The Tata Group, the country's largest conglomerate, epitomises the global outreach of modern India; having acquired the Corus metals company last year, it is now seeking to buy Jaguar Cars and Land Rover.

The world's second most populous nation presents a striking contrast between that kind of industrial clout and the poverty in which most Indians still live. At one end of the scale are billionaires such as Vijay Mallya, who is promoting India as a Formula 1 racing power. At the other are the inhabitants of Mumbai's periphery who lack decent housing, education and healthcare. The Nano lies between those two extremes: a car built to attract members of the urban middle class who at present perch on motorcycles. That it will add to India's already acute traffic problems should remind the government of how far it has fallen behind in infrastructure development, whether roads, electricity or water. The Nano is a remarkable first from a country that still exasperates for its failure to provide basic services.