Nano upsets the apple cart

By COOMI KAPOOR
Publisher:The Star - Publication Date: 23-01-2008

Major automakers around the globe are sitting up to take note of the people's car from the House of Tata, and to figure how to meet its potential challenge.
NANO is here, the world’s smallest and cheapest car. Designed, engineered and soon-to-be-manufactured in India, the cute little car wowed the world when Ratan Tata, the country’s most respected business leader, unveiled the long-awaited peoples’ car at the New Delhi Auto Expo earlier this month.
The rousing reception left even the usually sedate Tata overwhelmed with emotion. Both ordinary folk and auto exports hailed the head-honcho of the Tata Group of companies for having achieved a landmark feat.
The world sat up to take note of the Nano while major automakers around the globe figured how to meet its potential challenge. And several auto majors declared their intention to make their own versions of cheap and small cars.
Despite the odds and serious doubts expressed by car makers, the 70-year-old Tata persevered with his dream to make a Rs1 lakh (US$ 2,500) car for ordinary Indians.
Five years ago, he was moved by the common sight on Indian roads of a family of four precariously negotiating treacherous traffic on a two-wheeler – with the young son standing in the tiny space in front and the wife, riding pillion, holding their youngest child in her lap.
“I had often wondered why this family cannot travel in dignity in a safe four-wheeler ? that was when I undertook my life’s biggest challenge,” Tata told a world media on Jan 10 as he unveiled the glistening red and yellow Nano models.
The Nano had an electrifying effect. There were near stampedes in the Tata Motors pavilion during the week-long Auto Expo.
Ordinary people who could hardly afford a two-wheeler – some modes, incidentally, sell at prices far higher than the Nano – dreamed of owning the car.
Even owners of three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, the favourite mode of transport of the urban middle class, talked of switching to the Nano for use as taxis, especially when it would cost only one-third of their low-brow, open-air vehicles.
The buzz in the auto world was reflected in reports and comments in major media around the world. From German papers and television channels to the BBC and British press and the generally insular American media, they all sat up and took note of the “milestone development” in India.
The Nano from the House of Tata, which should be on the road this October or November, is set to bring about an inspirational revolution not only in India but also in a number of other low-income countries.
Tata disclosed that a few foreign automakers had shown keen interest in joint ventures for manufacturing the Nano.
Nano the car scores not only on its smallness but on its big features as well. The two-cylinder 623cc aluminium engine mounted at the rear generates 33hp, enough to carry five persons at a maximum speed of 104kph.
It delivers 20km to a litre of petrol and sports a 30-litre fuel tank.
Smaller in dimensions than Maruti-Suzuki’s Maruti-800, the Nano, however, has 20% more interior space because the engine is located at the rear.
Significantly, Tata says Rs1 lakh would be the ex-factory price, which means the buyer will have to pay 12.5% VAT and the transportation cost from the factory in Singur, West Bengal, in addition to some other incidental expenses.
Of course, higher variants with diesel engine, air-conditioning and power steering will cost more.
The Singur factory, when fully operational, will roll out 20,000 Nanos every year. Tata reckons that over 500,000 Indian households are potential buyers of the Nano.
A somewhat sour note, however, was struck in an otherwise exhilarating Nano moment when environmentalists expressed concern that the Nano would add to both pollution and traffic congestion.
But Tata ticked them off, asserting that his product conformed to the Bharat-3 emission standards and would also meet the tougher Euro-4 emissions norms. And, on safety grounds, Tata claimed, Nano had successfully undergone all tests.
Admittedly, the journey to Nano wasn’t easy.
Indeed, it was made all the more arduous by political turmoil in West Bengal, the eastern state Tata had chosen to locate the ambitious production facility.
Last year, protesters fought pitched battles with the police against the acquisition of 364ha of land in Singur, a small town 40km from Kolkata, which was earmarked for Tata’s small-car plant.
Other states had wooed him to locate the plant but Tata had promised West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya that he would lead the industrial revival of the state with his new car venture.
It is only fair that the last word goes to Tata: “It started with a dream but it wouldn’t have been realised without the effort of 500 engineers who worked for four years and produced a product that the world said couldn’t be done ? I had promised to produce a Rs1 lakh car. I have kept my promise.”
If only there were a couple of more public-spirited business leaders like Ratan Tata, the face of India would change faster than it has even after a near-9% growth for the eighth year running.

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