Advertised as the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano is a no-frills automobile designed by Indian conglomerate Tata to be affordable to millions, possibly hundreds of millions, of people who are newly joining the middle class in India and elsewhere in the developing world. With lots of hypes and expectations, this four-door car was made public in a festive mode.
Lots of public interests has been created for this much-awaited Rs one lakh car ($2,500) or the equivalent of a DVD player in a Lexus, which many think, to be instrumental in people’s dream to shift from a two wheeler to a four wheeler. Tata Motors has dubbed it as ‘People’s Car’, indicating its involvement to the people of root level. As Indians (and others) join the love affair with the private automobile, there is a huge prospect of Nano becoming a household term like Chevy or Mercedes.
It is a cute, compact car designed to appeal to first-time car buyers in one of the world’s fastest growing car markets. The car is the culmination of about five years of research and input from designers across the world. But it was ultimately designed and made in India, defying scepticism that an Indian group best known for its elephantine trucks could manufacture a cutting-edge product that would catch the attention of the best in the automotive industry. The whole car is about a single word - innovation, right from using aerospace adhesives instead of welding to its distribution strategy.
Initially though planned to be built at proposed Tata’s plant in Singur in West Bengal, it has been later shifted to Sanand in Gujarat. The launch of Nano is a valuable lesson for all aspiring entrepreneurs. The brand is a symbol of Vision. In a span of 10 years a dream has seen the light of the day. A starting point entailed challenging existing design philosophies about cars that they must be big, fuel guzzlers, very fast and extremely safe.
But it is also true that the car has fueled a host of concerns. With developing countries like India and China putting more and more cars on the roads, it has created a greater demand for fuel, contributing to sky-high global oil prices. All countries need to seriously rethink their transportation policies. Such an effort has to go far beyond the pursuit of alternative fuels and even beyond making cars more efficient.
Denser cities and shorter distances reduce the overall need for motorized transportation and make public transit, biking, and walking more feasible. Those who will never be able to afford a car will have more options instead of being marginalized by the onslaught of private automobiles. And the idea of such a low-cost vehicle has environmentalists petrified, conjuring images of a huge influx of cars, traffic jams at midnight, hours-long commutes and increasing pollution.
But saying all apart still the Nano would likely succeed in achieving one of Tata's goals, apart from making money, and that is providing an affordable means of transportation, which directly competes with motorcycles that dot Indian cities today.
The Nano’s obvious appeal, though, is not its pedigree but its price, targeting people moving up from the lower ends of India’s transportation spectrum. So, it seems that Tata Nano is going to rock the Indian roads in the days to come. If the car maintains its promised services, then Nano will definitely surge the streets of India with lots of people’s dream come true.
Nano will redefine the pricing in the Indian small car market. Whether the car performs or not, Nano is set to change the dynamics of an Industry. It appeared that if the people could not come to the car, the car had to come to the people.
Tata Nano Current Prices:
- Tata Nano Base Model - Rs. 1,35,151
- Tata Nano CX - Rs. 1,64,481
- Tata Nano LX - Rs. 1,86,498
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