Tata Nano the smallest car ever in India is expected to come in market in mid- 2009 with its two variants: standard and deluxe. Both these versions will be available in the market in various body colors and equipped with many accessories so that on an overall the car can fulfill the desires of a particular individual. The world’s cheapest and the most anticipated car. It is expected that Tata Nano launch revolutionize the auto industry that has been generated immense interest in India and abroad.
In January 2008, at New Delhi's Auto Expo, Tata Motors had unveiled a bubble-shaped car called the Nano. Integrating sleek curves, a roomy interior, and a small but powerful engine, the vehicle has a shockingly low price: Rs 1,000,000, = $2,500: a four-seat family ride for the price of an high-end laptop.
Middle-class household incomes in India start at roughly $6,000 a year, so a $3,000 car is the kind of innovation that could create millions of new drivers. 8 million Indians currently own cars, and another 18 million have the means to buy one. However, the Nano could increase that pool of potential auto owners by as much as 65 percent, to 30 million. "This goes beyond economics and class," says Ravi Kant, managing director of Tata Motors. "This crosses the urban-rural divide. Now a car is within the reach of people who never imagined they would own a car. It's a triumph for our company. And for India."
The Tata Group is the General Electric of India, a sprawling conglomerate with a commanding presence in media, telecom, outsourcing, retailing, real estate, locomotives and autos. In 1998, Tata Motors introduced the country's first indigenously designed car- the homegrown Tata Indica, which now sells for around $6,000, became ubiquitous as a taxi.
Ratan Tata, the company's chair and the great-grandson of Jamsetji, got the idea for the Nano when he was sitting in traffic, battling Mumbai's gridlock, and he noticed a single scooter carrying an entire family. Suddenly it struck him: The poor driver and his passengers represented not just a vast social need but an immense market opportunity. The success of the Indica gave him the confidence to try to tap it.
In India, the new vehicle could make the dreams of millions of dreams come true, but at the same time, the prospect of a flood of additional cars terrifies city planners and environmentalists. Metropolises throughout the developing world are expanding at breakneck speed. In many places, the crumbling roads are already crammed beyond capacity. Traffic fatalities are on the rise, and air pollution threatens to choke remaining pockets of green space. Sure, a single Nano is a step toward independence, security, and social mobility — but to some observers, millions of Nanos spell apocalypse.
Tata insists that the Nano will pollute less than the two-wheelers it is intended to replace. The Nano's catalytic converter appears to reduce most pollutants by about 80 percent—not as much as the 99 percent Western models do, but still a big reduction. Environmentalists, though, say that it will probably fail after a few years on the road. The reason: Indians typically don't keep their autos in tip-top shape. When the catalytic converter fails, emissions of pollutants could shoot up fivefold.
The story gets worse when greenhouse gases like CO2, which escape catalytic converters, are considered. The more gas burned, the more CO2 released. The Nano is likely to replace motor scooters and motorbikes, which get about 54 kilometers to the liter, more than twice what the Nano (20 kilometers per liter of gasoline, which is equal to 50 miles per gallon) is expected to get. And that does not account for a decline in fuel efficiency if the cars are not maintained well.
Western environmentalists know they have little moral standing to criticize Indians for wanting cars, particularly one that meets the highest Western emissions standards. But they're rattled in part because they didn't see this coming, and will have to recalculate projections for the buildup of greenhouse gases based on a world of many more drivers. "In none of our reports did we assume there'd be a car like this," says Judy Greenwald, director of innovative solutions at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. "This is a new category. It will affect everybody's projections."
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