It’s 10 feet long, has one windshield wiper and a rear engine
The ultra-cheap Nano, a pint-sized vehicle designed to make car ownership accessible to millions of the world’s poor, finally goes on sale in India next month. The $2,200 car will hit India’s streets in July, and then it’s on to the U.S. Yes, for just one online payday loan and a little extra, you can own a car! The big questions are: will it revolutionize the global auto industry or will it sink its manufacturer’s? Every automaker in the world will be watching breathlessly.
“We did it!” said Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group of companies. “Nothing is really impossible if you set your mind to it,” he said. “We have given the country an affordable car. It’s on to Europe and America soon, with safer, cleaner and ultra-cheap Nanos for the developed world.”
The spec in India
The Nano is a stripped-down car for stripped-down times. Look at these facts:
- Starting retail price – $2,233.
- Length: 10 feet 3 inches.
- Number of windshield wipers: 1
- Rear engine capacity: 623 cc.
- Number of seats: 4
- Maximum speed: 65 miles an hour.
- Consumption: 55.5 miles to the gallon.
- Air-bags: 0
- Antilock brakes: 0
- Air conditioning: Optional extra
- Power windows: Optional extra
- Radio: Optional extra
- Power steering: Optional extra
Selling points in India
The Nano will be sold at Tata car dealerships across India, online, and at electronics and clothing shops owned by the Tata group of companies.
Public opinion
On Monday night people flocked to see the Nanos. They slammed the doors shut, bounced on the seats, tooted the horns and tugged on the flexible plastic bumpers. “It is a proper car,” said Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India, a trade magazine. He said the designers made clever compromises to keep costs down, scrimping on plush seats but offering a comfy suspension and ample interior space.
The Nano should make global automakers stop loading their cars with costly gadgets people don’t really want, he added. Some automakers have already started following suit. Bajaj Auto, Renault and Nissan teamed up last year to make a car that wholesales for $2,500 in India by 2011.
The Nano workers
Ratan Tata won’t speculate whether this is a Henry Ford moment for India. Ford famously paid his factory workers enough so that if they saved carefully, they’d be able to buy their own Model T. The average salary at the Nano factory is $3,000 a year, company officials said. Ratan Tata said most workers there don’t even own motorbikes. “We bus them to work every day,” he said.
Who will buy it?
Well done India! This car gets my vote. It was time someone threw a challenge into the car-making ring. Every year it’s just more of the same.
I’ll buy one. Hold that order. I’ll take five. One each for my wife and I, and one for each of the kids. What colors have you got?
For less than $12,000 I can solve all the school and college rides, get myself to the train at my time, and stop hanging around waiting for kids.
By the time this car is available in the US, it’s going to cost three times that amount. Import fees, and all the tests it will have to pass in order to be proven to be safe for the consumer. Wish we applied the standards we do to cars to things like toothpaste and drywall, we’d probably be better off.