- TATA-Nano Car | Image Source : Theautochannel.com
The Nano is one of the most talked about cars in the automotive universe. You may recall stories over the last couple years about this Indian company building the cheapest real car in the world to sell for $2,500 – the same Indian company, by the way, that bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.
The story goes that the fourth generation leader of the Tata Group, Mr. Ratan Tata, was appalled at seeing masses of Indians packing onto motorcycles and scooters and wildly dashing through traffic risking life and limb – Mom, Dad and kids all teetering on old two-wheelers. He decided there must be a way to make a low-cost, all-weather conveyance – not even necessarily a car – that the average Indian could afford and one that would mitigate the risks of the every-man-for-himself driving environment. So he issued the challenge to his people to build such a conveyance, keeping the price to an arbitrary $2,500.
Indian buyers get a 4-passenger (5 if you squeeze three small people in the back) little humpy 4-door, steel-bodied sedan with a tiny rear-mounted, 2-cylinder, 27-horsepower engine and 4-speed manual transmission managing to get 50-mpg. After all, what more do you really need when you’re replacing a motor scooter?
The Nano looks like what we think of as a “city car.” Little 12-inch wheels are pushed out to the corners and spread wide for good balance. Interestingly, the front and rear tires are a little different in size, perhaps to accommodate the heavier rear where the drive train resides. Side impact beams are integrated into the think doors. Read more ……
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