Template:Future automobile

Tata Nano
‎
Overview
Manufacturer	Tata Motors
Also called	The People's Car
Production	2008–present
Assembly	Singur, West Bengal
Designer	Justin Norek
Body and chassis
Class	City car
Body style	4-door kei car
Layout	RR layout
Powertrain
Engine	2 cylinder petrol Bosch multi-point fuel injection (single injector) all aluminium 623 cc (38 cu in)
Transmission	4 speed synchromesh with overdrive in 4th
Dimensions
Wheelbase	2,230 mm (87.8 in)
Length	3,100 mm (10.2 ft)[1]
Width	1,500 mm (4.9 ft)[1]
Height	1,600 mm (5.2 ft)[1]
Curb weight	580 kg (1,280 lb)-600 kg (1,300 lb)[2]
Chronology
Predecessor	none

The Tata Nano is a city car launched by India's Tata Motors at the 9th annual Auto Expo on January 10, 2008 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India ^[3].

Called the people’s car in Tata's promotional material, it is projected to be the least expensive production car in the world.^[4] The standard version of the Nano is projected to cost Rs 100,000 (not including levies or delivery charges) (US$2500, GBP 1277, €1700),^[5].^[6]

Because of its target price, the Nano is sometimes referred to as "one lakh car" (after the Indian numbering term, meaning '100,000') ^[7]. The car's formal name derives from the extremely small unit of measure, the nanometre.

The project to create a 1 lakh rupee car began in 2003, under the Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan Tata. ^[8] The strategy behind the project was the awareness of the number of Indian families who had two wheeled transport, but couldn't afford a four wheel car,^[9] and was based on the company's success in producing the low cost 4 wheeled Ace truck in May 2005.^[8]

Industry convention was that a reliable car couldn't be made at such a low price, so initial media speculation was that the car would be a simple four-wheeled auto rickshaw. However, The Times of India reported that the vehicle is "a properly designed and built car".^[10] The Chairman is reported to have said, "It is not a car with plastic curtains or no roof -- it's a real car." ^[8]

During development the company reinvented and minimized the manufacturing process, brought in innovative product design, and asked component manufacturers to look at current work and design approaches in a different perspective to produce logical and simple solutions. ^[10]

The car was designed at Italy's Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering, with Ratan Tata ordering certain changes during the process, such as reducing the number of windscreen wipers from two to one. ^[8]

The Nano has 21% more interior space and an 8% smaller exterior, when compared with its closest rival, the Maruti 800. The car will come in different versions, including one standard and two deluxe variants. The deluxe version will have air conditioning, but no power steering. The car is expected to be produced in the Singur plant in West Bengal, which is under construction. The initial production target set by Tata Motors is 250,000 units per year.

The use of a rear mounted engine to help maximise interior space makes the Nano similar to the original Fiat 500, another technically innovative 'people's car'. A concept vehicle similar in styling to the Nano, also with rear engined layout was proposed by the UK Rover Group in the 1990s to succeed the original Mini but was not put into production ^[11]. The now-defunct Rover Group later based their City Rover on the Tata Indica while the eventual 'new Mini' was the much larger, technically conservative Mini (BMW).

According to Tata Group's Chairman Ratan Tata, the Nano is a Template:Auto PS car with a 623 cc rear engine and rear wheel drive, and has a fuel economy of 4.55 L/100 km (21.97 km/L, 51.7 mpg (US), 62 mpg (UK)) under city road conditions, and 3.85 L/100 km on highways (25.97 km/L, 61.1 mpg (US), 73.3 mpg (UK)). It is the first time a two-cylinder non-opposed petrol engine will be used in a car with a single balancer shaft.^[12] Tata Motors has reportedly filed multiple patents related to the innovations in the design of Nano, with powertrain design alone having 34 patents.^[13] The head of Tata Motors' Engineering Research Centre, Girish Wagh has been credited with being one of the brains behind Nano's design.^[13][14]

According to Tata, the Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards.^[15]

• Engine:
  • 2 cylinder petrol with Bosch multi-point fuel injection (single injector) all aluminium 623 cc (38 cu in)
  • 2 valves per cylinder overhead camshaft
  • Compression ratio - 9.5:1
  • bore × stroke 73.5 × 73.5 mm
  • Power: Template:Auto PS @ 5500 rpm^[16]
  • Torque: 48 N⋅m (35 ft⋅lbf) @ 2500 rpm

• Rear wheel drive, 4-speed manual transmission

• Steering – mechanical rack and pinion

• Acceleration: 0-70 km/h (43 mph): 14 seconds

• Maximum speed: 105 km/h (65 mph)^[1]

• Fuel economy (combined City + Highway): 20 kilometres per liter (5 L/100 km, 47 US mpg, 56 UK mpg)^[2]

• Seat belt: 2^[17]

• Trunk capacity: 150 L (5.3 cu ft)^[2]

• Front brake: disc^[18]

• Rear brake: drum

• Front track: 1,325 mm (52.2 in)

• Rear track: 1,315 mm (51.8 in)

• Ground clearance: 180 mm (7.1 in)^[2]

• Front suspension: McPherson strut with lower A arm

• Rear suspension: Independent coil spring

• 12-inch wheels^[19]

As the Nano was conceived and designed around introducing the automobile to a sector of the population who are currently using eco-friendly bicycles and motorcycles, environmentalists are concerned that its extraordinarily low price might lead to mass motorization in countries like India and therefore possibly aggravate pollution and global warming as well as increase the demand for oil^[20]. Rajendra Pachauri, an Indian and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said he was "having nightmares" because of this car and added that the car represents bankruptcy of India's environmental policy. The ecology focused German newspaper die tageszeitung feels that such concerns are "inappropriate" as the Tata Nano has lower emissions compared to the average Volkswagen, and that developing countries shouldn't be denied the right to motorized mobility when industrialized countries should be looking to reduce their emissions and usage of cars.^[21] Die Welt reports that the car conforms with environmental protection, and will have the lowest emissions in India.^[22] In crowded metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Ratan Tata has conceived a scheme to only offer the Nano to those individuals who do not have an automobile already. The Nano will also replace many overloaded and worn-out two-stroke polluting vehicles, both two and three-wheeled.

Controversies also arose about Tata's planned manufacturing unit for the car in Singur, West Bengal, where the regional government of West Bengal has allocated 997 acres (4.03 km²) to Tata Motors. The construction of the car factory on that tract of land will require fertile agricultural land and the expropriation and eviction of ca. 15,000 peasants and agricultural workers. The affected farmers fear they will receive inadequate or no compensation and therefore lose their livelihoods.^[23]

Activists near Kolkata, where Tata's manufacturing unit is located, started burning the car in effigy.^[24] In New Delhi, a group of six women protested wearing T-shirts bearing slogans that said, "The Rs 1 lakh car has Singur people's blood on it." ^[25] The Trinamool Congress alleged that Tata motors usurped the agrarian land for the construction site and have threatened to stall the manufacture of the car.^[26] The 11 cases were dismissed.

The Nano is alleged to have severely affected the used car market in India, as many Indians opt to wait for the Nano's release rather than buying a secondhand car of the Nano's nearest competitor, the Maruti 800 (a rebadged Suzuki Alto). Sales of new 800's have dropped 20%, and 30% for used models. As one automotive journalist surmizes: “People are asking themselves – and us - why they should pay, say, 250,000 rupees for a new Maruti Alto, when they can wait and get a brand new Nano for less in a few months’ time, a car that is actually bigger”.^[27]

• Tata Indica
• Automobile industry in India
• Girish Wagh

• Official website of the Tata Nano
• TATA Nano reviews [IndiaReviewChannel]
• A photo gallery of the Tata Nano launch from Auto Expo 2008
• Launch video of the Tata Nano
• Tata Nano Car
• Can the world afford the Tata Nano?, The Independent, 11 January 2008
• World's cheapest car unveiled, The Independent, 11 January 2008
• Tata's one-lakh car Nano: Western media on overdrive The Economic Times, 11 January 2008
• Why critics of the Tata small car are barking up the wrong tree Domain-b.com, 10 January 2008
• Nano Car News
• Specifications of 'People's Car' - Tata Nano [AutoIndia.com]
• Tata Nano Specification, Interior, Colors & Features [Infibeam.com]