The $2,000 car you can't buy (in the U.S.)

The much-anticipated Tata Nano -- at just half the price of the next-cheapest car in the world -- You won't find it in the US.
By MSN Money staff and wire reports
The cheapest car in the world is expected to begin rolling off assembly lines March 23, seven months behind schedule.
India's tiny Tata Nano, priced at 100,000 rupees, or about $2,000 at current exchange rates, will not be sold in the United States. Cars will reach dealerships across India in April, and production for the first year is expected to reach 250,000 vehicles.
The Nano's unveiling in January 2008 caused a stir worldwide and especially in India, where there are fewer than 10 cars for every thousand people, compared with 40 per thousand in China and 450 in the U.S.
Indians bought about 1 million cars in 2007. Far more middle-class Indians buy and transport their entire families on scooters.
Tell us: Would you buy a $2,000 car made in India?
Despite the frenzy of enthusiasm that ensued, production of the ultracheap car stalled when protests from farmers forced Tata Motors to abandon its West Bengal factory. The car will be built in small numbers at several current Tata factories until a dedicated factory is finished.
Tata, India's leading producer of trucks and third-biggest carmaker, last year bought Ford Motor's (F, news, msgs) Jaguar and Land Rover brands for $2.3 billion. While India's relatively small passenger-car market hasn't collapsed nearly as much as North America's, sales of passenger trucks, buses and other large vehicles tumbled 51% in January, a big blow to Tata.

The company's Nano Web site has seen more than 30 million hits, and social networks such as Facebook have thousands of interest groups and communities around the car.
Why the fuss? The Nano -- its working name was the "People's Car" -- is just half the price of the next-cheapest car in the world, a Chery Automobiles QQ3 sold only in its domestic market of China. The $5,200 Suzuki Maruti is the current least expensive option for Indians, where per capita incomes are nearing $1,000 after years of explosive economic growth. In the U.S., the cheapest option is the Nissan Versa, which, at $9,990, is about five times the price of Nano.
Video: See the Tata Nano
With a snub nose and a sloping roof, the world's cheapest car can hold five people -- if they squeeze. And the basic version is spare: There's no radio, no air bags, no passenger-side mirror and only one windshield wiper. If you want air conditioning to cope with India's brutal summers, you need to get the deluxe version. Analysts estimate taxes, delivery and extras will add 30% or so to the car's cost.
At 10 feet long, the Nano is about 2 feet shorter than a Mini Cooper. Its 623-cubic-centimeter, two-cylinder engine is estimated to produce about 35 horsepower, good for a top speed of 75 mph.

The 10 cheapest cars sold in the U.S:
Model Price Model Price
Nissan Versa....$9,990

Toyota Yaris....$12,205

Hyundai Accent....$11,070

Kia Spectra.....$13,550

Kia Rio....$11,495

Suzuki Reno....$13,839

Chevrolet Aveo5....$11,965

Hyundai Elantra....$14,120

Smart fortwo....$11,990

Pontiac G3....$14,335

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Hats off! say auto experts

When Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, stepped out of the Nano at the Auto Expo in Delhi, automobile design experts admiringly noted his smooth exit from the roomy, high-seating family car.

The Rs 1 lakh car has stunned the world for rolling out as a stylish showstopper with no outward signs of a cheap, budget vehicle.

"Hats off!" was the spontaneous reaction from automobile designer Dilip Chhabria, chairman and MD of Mumbai-based DC Design who was 'surprised' at the car's style statement despite the cost challenge.

"They will rewrite the rules of the game for all car makers to emulate, not just in India," emphasised Chhabria. "This will have ramifications on the way cars are designed globally." The Nano design is original, radical and very futuristic, said Chhabria, adding that he was struck by its side profile.

At the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, professor Kishor Munshi gave the design a thumbs up too, as he watched the launch on television. "It's fantastic!" said Munshi, an automobile design expert at the IIT's Industrial Design Centre. "Cost was the biggest challenge in designing this car, and Indian designers and engineers have proven they were up to it. They've beaten every carmaker in the world hollow."

The mono-volume design and body shape is contemporary and 'excellent' given the car's size, said Munshi.

Tata Motors said in a media release that the lean design strategy has helped minimise the car's weight and maximise fuel efficiency and performance. "The wheels at the corners and power train at the rear combine space and maneuverability, to set a new benchmark among small cars," said a media statement.

"The proof of the pudding will be in driving it, but visually it looks pretty good," said London-based auto analyst Ashvin Chotai, who was at Thursday's unveiling. "The pricing was a bit of a surprise. I thought it would be a bit higher."

Tata said costs were kept low by cutting the "size of the package".

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Some Disadvantages of Tata Nano-the people's Car

Following are Drawbacks of Tata Nano:
No Hand Brake.
Engine at the rear. So no protection at the front in case of accident.
Top speed - 90 Kmph (Kilometer per hour). Thats why it would be just a city car more or less, no long drives! Pity!!. So, it would not be popular among youth who need speed which they get in Bikes.
Made up of low grade metal - Aluminium
Mileage: 20 Kmpl in spite of being light weight
Low Quality interiors - Seat cover are made up of leather.
No spare Tire.
Small sized Dashboard which can't safeguard against collision from front.
Low Priced gearbox from Kinetic Scooter Company.
Very ugly interiors.
Seats uncomfortable much like a Three-Wheeler.
Emission norms not followed properly.
Not powerful, Slow Pickup (0-20 Kmph)
Little Advantage in Hot Places: It has an AC (Air Conditioner) I guess!!

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1 lakh car drives 1 billion dreams

Ending a four-year wait and bringing the dream of car ownership closer to millions, Tata Motors today unveiled the "People's Car" at a show here watched by the international automobile industry. Called Nano, the car will cost Rs 1 lakh as promised by the company which also assured meeting all safety and emission norms.

"Since we started the project four years back, there has been a steep increase in input cost but a promise is a promise," said Tata Group chief Ratan Tata after displaying his dream project at the Ninth Auto Expo.

"I observed families riding on two-wheelers — the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family," Tata said.

"Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a people's car, which is affordable yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions. We hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility." This small car — Nano is 20 per cent shorter in length than the Maruti 800 but Tata claims it has 21 per cent more space — is powered by a 623 cc rear-mounted engine and will travel 20 km per litre. The car will cost Rs 1 lakh at the dealer-end but attract Value-Added Tax and transportation cost.

Apart from the standard version, Nano will also come in two deluxe models with air conditioning. While critics had been sceptical about the car meeting safety and emission norms, Tata said Nano will meet Bharat Stage-III emission norms and can also meet the stringent Euro 4 norms. The car has also gone through a full frontal crash test as per standard norms, he said.

Tata Motors expects two-wheeler riders to buy the car that costs half as much as those currently in the market. With just 8 people in 1,000 owning a car in India, there is huge potential to upgrade bike and scooter owners who bought about 7 million two-wheelers in 2006-07.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said Nano will help the common man shift from two-wheelers to four-wheelers. "It is a proud moment for India. It demonstrates India's technological and entrepreneurial ability. The car will help people move from two-wheeler to four-wheeler and it will leap-frog the two-wheeler. It fulfils the need of the common Indian who aspires to move from a two-wheeler to a four-wheeler," he said.

Tata also allayed fears expressed by environmentalist R K Pachauri and green activist Sunita Narain that a car at that price would add more vehicles, leading to higher pollution. "Pachauri will not have a nightmare and Sunita Narain can also sleep," he said.

On the reasons for choosing the name Nano, Tata said the car was about high technology and small size. He credited the development of Nano to Tata Motors' engineers, and said it was the capability and commitment to innovate that realised the dream. In fact, Tata Motors has applied for 34 patents for aggregate features, such as the two cylinder gasoline with single balancer shaft.

Asked if the company was looking to export the car as well, Tata said: "The first two-three years our focus will be India and see the Indian market appropriately addressed." He did not, however, rule out an overseas launch of the car.

Tata revealed what enabled it to cut down costs and score over the entire global auto industry. "We took the standard Maruti 800 as the base model and worked backwards on how we can reduce costs. We decided and found out that a tight package, that will mean a smaller, meaner car, lighter engine and higher fuel economy will do the trick," Tata said. "The decision to make it a rear engine driven was precisely to reduce the length of the car."

But why did other car makers miss the trick? "I cannot say for others but what is important is whether you have desire strong enough to prevent the odds from overwhelming you," Tata said.

At the site of the plant in Singur, West Bengal, where the first Nano will roll out, it is a race against time. Over 2500 people have been working in two shifts behind a guarded perimeter to complete the factory in time. Soon another shift will be introduced to make up for any backlog in work caused during the last heavy monsoon.

"Work will soon start in three shifts. Over 75 per cent work of the factory is complete and we hope by September of this year the first car will roll out of the factory,"' a top official of West Bengal Industrial Development Corp (WBIDC) told The Indian Express. A major portion of the work involving the setting up of a 230 KV substation on the project site to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the factory and the vendor park has almost been completed by ABB.

In order to save the site from inundation in the future, the state government has revived the 30-year-old Ghiya Kulti irrigation project at a cost of Rs 170 crore.

Next to the 645-acre plot that will have the main car plant, a vendor park is coming up on 290 acres to house the proposed 55 ancillary units. Already, 14 have started setting up theirs. These include Lord Swaraj Paul-owned Caparo Engineering Pvt Ltd, Rasandik Engineering Industries Indian Ltd, Rucha Engineers Pvt Ltd and Sharda Motor Industries Ltd. While Rasandik has plans of investing Rs 55 crore in the first phase of work at the vendor site, Rucha Engineering has committed Rs 50 crore for their facility at the vendor park.

WBIDC has set up a camp office at the project site where so far 2432 persons from displaced families have got their names registered. "The Government, with the help of Tata Motors, will arrange for employment opportunities for them through training and financial assistance," said Samir Rudra, the office-in-charge.

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Car Is Green: Tata

Ratan Tata believes the new small car will be one of the greenest vehicles around, according to an article published in The Times, UK.

There are eight million two wheelers put on the road every year which pollute more and are more dangerous. If you look at the total population, the incremental emissions will be minisicule. Why are we singled out? he said.

Tata was reponding to fears that the small car, or 250,000 of them on the Indian roads, could herald an environmental nightmare in India.

Tata, which is all set to pick up Fords Jaguar and Land Rover, acknowledged the image disparity it would face in owning one of the automobile industrys most prestigious brands as well as producing the worlds cheapest car at Rs 1 lakh.

How a company manages products in different sectors is the key.

Toyota created Lexus, Nissan has Infiniti. No one is saying how can BMW handle the Mini? but theyve made a huge success of it. So why is it impossible?" said Tata.

Its amusing and ironic because nearly everyone said it could not be done, Tata said. Some have been derogatory, some dismissive, yet all are entering this area themselves. It vindicates what we set out to do, said Tata.

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Delhi upstaged Detroit with The Tata Nano

It was always the big brother show but this year, Delhi upstaged Detroit with the Tata Nano. Despite its 200 cars and 50 concepts, the ongoing North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) did not quite get it right this year. True there were some pretty zany marketing antics - including Chrysler's cattle stampede to launch the Dodge Ram truck.

True there were the usual sprinkling of stars, including Kid Rock for General Motors, Bryan Adams for the Audi R8 V12 concept super car. And sex and the city's Kim Cattrall for the Mercedes Benz GLK Freeside.

But no BIG BANG. In fact a section of the international media actually commented that the car that held centre stage in Detroit this year was one that wasn't even on display. Namely, the Nano.

For Detroit, the cheapest debutante this year was a Chinese SUV. It will be imported by a company called Chamco and is manufactured by ZX Auto of China. It's tag: $14,000. Sorry guys, the Nano is leagues ahead. Although the Chinese companies - BYD, Changfeng, Geely and othershogged quite a few headlines and have announced their intention to roll out Made in China sedans and SUVs in the US, none of them had any breakthrough products on display. Of the 200 cars that jostled for eyeballs, just a hand few were different/ special /truly gorgeous.

Top of that roster will be the Mitsubishi RA clean diesel concept coupe which marries the EVO DNA to a 2 litre turbo diesel engine to crank out some truly decent power and torque. Just as interesting is the Audi R8 V12 super car concept, both in style and performance promise, Bryan Adams notwithstanding.(Audi paraded John Abrahams in Delhi and between the two, Abrahams is certainly the dishier variant.)

The Land Rover LRX concept got a lot of wows which should be good news for the Tata team. And the Ferrari 430 Spider biofuel was the ultimate in toys for boys going green. Hummer displayed an ethanol variant and Toyota a fuel cell-cum electric hybrid SUV though the stunning Jeep Renegade concept (a battery-and-diesel hybrid) topped the list of green droolworthies.

Mercedes Benz showed off the Vision GLK Freeside which should soon get into production while BMW X6 sports activity coupe was the kind of hundreds-of-horses performance packs that the American market has always liked. Also on display was Tranformers car Chevy Camaro which rubbed hub caps with other all-American models Ford F150 and Dodge Ram pick ups.

The Asian brigade also had some good old fashioned SUVs and sedans. Hyundai for instance showed off the Genesis saloon and Kia the Borrego SUV, both of which should earn the Korean company some de-cent marketshare in the US. Volkswagen's sleek four-door coupe, the Passat CC, also drew attention as did the Cadillac CTS coupe concept, a genuinely nice looking two-door.

But of course, despite all the hoopla and green angst, it was the Nano that ruled both conversations as well as media bytes. Top auto bosses either announced their plans to enter that segment (Toyota) or not. When the Nano does debut overseas in Geneva, the Delhi rush will see another encore. Till then, Detroit will simply have to play second fiddle.

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Some disadvantages as well as advantages of Tata Nano

Well I believe there are advantages and disadvantages to the introduction of the nano
so i will speak for both.

First of all the nano is a city car it will not be used much to travel between cities like the other cars.
So there will be an increased level of traffic during the peak hours of travel....
but the number of fatal accidents caused by bikes will be reduced because of the nano.

Talking abt accidents fatal ones caused by cars itself. The number of accidents will be great because the nano is made out of light weight aluminium.
It will fold up like a matchbox in an accident


But enough abt the death part...
The Nano is a 33 PS (33 hp/24 kW) car with a 623 cc rear engine .
The maruti 800 another small car has great problem going ip a slope loaded up with 4 full grown passengers.
So there are doubts about the capabality of the nano...

On a more enviromental perspective the nano meet all the requirements
of the ebharat stage 3 and the euro 4 emisson standards

Advantages:
Most people can afford it. People will probably prefer driving this rather than driving their 2-wheelers. Two-wheelers are quite dangerous especially in India
The cars is small and will fill in small places for parking.

Disadvantages:
Less space. Ac in select models. Average chassis. Spare parts available only at TATA dealerships. Less economy as compared to a 2 wheeler. Not a ca for highway. More people will buy it means more traffic.

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