Motor vehicle
The Tata Nano is a city car launched by India's Tata Motors at the 9th annual Auto Expo on January 10, 2008 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India.[2] The standard version of the Nano (without air conditioning, radio and power steering) will cost Rs 100,000 (not including levies such as VAT/LT, transport and delivery charges) (US$2500, GB£1277, €1700),[3] making it the cheapest production car in the world.[4]
The choice of price has led to the Nano being called the "1-lakh car" (after the Indian word, meaning '100,000').[5]
History and conception
In 2003 Ratan Tata Chairman of the Tata Group, mentioned his intention and dream of coming out with a 1 lakh rupee car. [6] While industry rivals said a car couldn't be made at this price, Tata said "They are still saying it can't be done, Everybody is talking of small cars as $5,000 or $7,000. After we get done with it, there will hopefully be a new definition of 'low-cost.'" [6]
Initial media speculations was that this low cost car would be a simple four-wheeled auto rickshaw. This changed when Tata decided, that a contemporary car not unlike its costlier models could be made at a low cost. TATA had decided to come out with a well designed car, instead of making a simple a four-wheeled auto rickshaw as thought of by their rivals. [7] As Tata said at that time "It is not a car with plastic curtains or no roof--it's a real car." [6]
To stick to the rigid six figure price, TATA had to reinvent and minimize the manufacturing process. It also had to bring in innovative product design and other related details to effectively drive out the vehicle. It also had to get their component makers to look at current work and design approaches in a different perspective such that they could come out with logical, and more important, simple solutions. [7]
The car's designing was at Italy's Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering, with Tata ordering certain changes during the process. [6] He famously vetoed the design of the wind shield wipers, by reducing the proposed two wipers to one. [6]
Technical specifications
According to Tata Group's Chairman Ratan Tata, the Nano is a Template:Auto PS car with a 623 cc rear engine and rear wheel drive, and has a fuel economy of 4.55 L/100 km (51.7 mpg (US), 62 mpg (UK)) under city road conditions, and 3.85 L/100 km on highways (61.1 mpg (US), 73.3 mpg (UK)). It is the first time a two-cylinder petrol engine will be used in a car with a single balancer shaft.[8] Tata Motors has reportedly filed multiple patents related to the innovations in the design of Nano, with powertrain design alone having 34 patents.[9] The head of Tata Motors' Engineering Research Centre, Girish Wagh has been credited with being one of the brains behind Nano's design.[9][10]
According to Tata, the Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards.[11]
Interiors and exteriors
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 variants, including one standard and two deluxe variants. The Deluxe variant will have air conditioning, but no power steering. The car is expected to be produced in the Singur plant in West Bengal which is under construction. The initial production target set by Tata Motors is 250,000 units per year.
Rear mounted engine
The use of a rear mounted engine to help maximise 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, but front wheel drive, was proposed by the UK Rover Group in the 1990s to succeed the original Mini, but was not put into production [12]. The now defunct Rover Group later based their City Rover on the Tata Indica while the eventual 'new Mini' was the much larger, technically conservative Mini (BMW).
Controversies
Mass motorization and climate change
Environmentalist critics argue that the Tata Nano with its extraordinarily low price might lead to mass motorization in countries like India and therefore aggravate pollution and Global warming. An Indian and chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri said he was "having nightmares" because of this car and added car represents bankruptcy of India's environmental policy. Meanwhile, supporters of the Tata Nano point out that it has rather low emissions. They also say developing countries shouldn't be denied the right to motorized mobility and that industrialized countries have to reduce emissions and usage of cars in the first place.[16]
Singur car factory land dispute
Controversies also arose about Tata's planned manufacturing unit for the car in Singur, West Bengal, where the regional government of West Bengal has allocated 997 acres (4.03 km2) to Tata Motors. The construction of the car factory on that tract of land will require fertile agricultural land and the expropriation and eviction of ca. 15,000 peasants and agricultural workers. The affected farmers fear they will receive inadequate or no compensation and therefore lose their livelihoods.[17]
They and their supporters argue that reducing the agricultural surface of the West Bengal state with several hundred hectars is critical. Some[who?] claim that this might be just the beginning, since the expected mass sales of these little cars could lead to extensive use of the farmlands for paved roads, parking lots and other amenities, and will reduce the farmland of India with an expected 1 million hectares - which is the food base for abb. 10 million Indians.[citation needed]
Activists near Kolkata, where Tata's manufacturing unit is located, started burning the car in effigy.[18] In New Delhi, women protested wearing T-shirts bearing slogans that said, "The Rs 1 lakh car has Singur people's blood on it." [19] The Trinamool Congress alleged that Tata motors usurped the agrarian land for the construction site and have threatened to stall the manufacture of the car.[20]
