2010 Tata Nano - What's the Big Idea?

There is a chance - just a chance - that this odd-looking little bubble of a car, with its dime-size wheels and tiny tailpipe and weird two-cylinder whir, might turn out to be the Ford Model T of the twenty-first century. True, there's plenty that might prevent the new Tata Nano from causing the seismic shock that some predict it will inflict on the global car industry. But like other transformative cars, it has a quantum-leap quality. The Model T revolutionized how cars are made, the Mini rethought how they're laid out, and at $2500, the Nano turns upside down our previous ideas about how much cars should cost.What you, me, and everyone else who cares as much about a car's dynamics as its dollar value wants to know is how the Nano drives: surely a whole car that costs less than some upholstery or audio upgrades must be terrible, right? Not remotely, and we're in a unique position to tell you. We haven't driven it, but we've been to Tata's test track in Pune, India, and scored a ride in the Nano. Nobody else outside Tata has experienced it "in action." Tata is very protective of its new baby, and it didn't mean for this to happen and isn't very happy that it did. It won't happen again for a while.But before we tell you what we thought, it's worth seeing this car in context. Tata Motors might have grabbed the world's attention in 2008 with the unveiling of the Nano and its purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover, but it has been making trucks in India for more than fifty years. When Ratan Tata took over as chairman of this family-owned, 140-year-old, impossibly diverse, tea-to-IT conglomerate in 1991, he decided to make cars, too. From scratch, he built Tata Motors into India's third-biggest carmaker in a market which, although now slowed by the same economic misery as everywhere else, has seen sales skyrocket from 40,000 in the mid-'90s to nearly 2 million today. When growth resumes, billion-strong India will dwarf European markets and join the United States, China, and Japan as an automotive superpower.Tata Motors' lineup might seem pretty freaky by Western tastes, but the company has grown by understanding exactly what its customers want. It already does cheap very well. The Tata Magic is a 700-cc minivan with fabric bodysides that sells for about $5800. It has eight seats but typically carries far more and is exactly what rural Indians need - very cheap, with room for the whole family.

[ Via: Automobilemag ]
[ Tag: ]

Tata shooting for 80,000 Nanos by March of 2010, diesel in 2011

 
The troubles that Tata Motors has had in getting its Nano microcar off the ground have been well documented. After a series of protests turned violent over a land dispute between local farmers in West Bengal and the Indian automaker,, production was moved to Tata's Pantnagar facility. Despite the massive setback (Tata had almost completed construction of the main plant before moving), the Indian automaker reportedly believes that it can assemble 80,000 Nanos by March of 2010. By that time, a second plant in Sanand should be ready to go, and that would quickly become the main facility for the inexpensive car (though Pantnagar would still supplement the larger operation).
What's next for the ongoing saga that is The World's Cheapest Car? By the end of 2011, the Nano's will get a diesel engine option in addition to the standard 33-horsepower 625 cc twin-cylinder gas unit that will be powering all Nanos at launch. Also on the future menu will be such sybaritic options as air conditioning and an automatic gearbox.
[ Via: Indian Autos Blog ]
[ Tag: Pantnagar, tata, tata motors, tata nano, tata nano diesel, TataMotors, TataNano, TataNanoDiesel ]