The Tata Nano is a proposed city car — a small, affordable, rear-engined, four-passenger car aimed primarily at the Indian market — first presented by India's Tata Motors at the 9th annual Auto Expo on January 10, 2008 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India.The prefix "Nano" derives from the Greek root 'nanos', meaning dwarf — as with nanometre. "Nano" also means "small" in Gujarati, the native language of the Tata family,founders of the Tata Group.
The project has garnered significant media attention for Tata Motors' due to the low sticker price. The car itself is expected to boost the Indian Economy, create entrepreneurial-opportunities across India, as well as expand the Indian car market by 65%. The car was envisioned by renowned industrialist, Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors, who has described it as an eco-friendly "people's car". Nano has been greatly appreciated by many sources and the media for its low-cost and eco-friendly initiatives which include using compressed-air as fuel and an electric-version (E-Nano). Tata Group is expected to mass-manufacture the Nano in very large quantities, particularly the electric-version, and, besides selling them in India, to also export them world-wide.
Critics of the car have questioned its safety in India (where reportedly 90,000 people are killed in road-accidents every year), and have also criticised the pollution that it would cause (including criticism by Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist, Rajendra Pachauri). However, Tata Motors has promised that it would definitely release Nano's eco-friendly variants alongside the gasoline-variant.
Due to strong and persistent opposition to Tata's Singur car-factory by Mamta Banerjee, Tata Motors ultimately decided to cease operations in Singur on 2 October 2008 and started manufacturing Tata Nano at its Pantnagar plant. On her protests and the consequent pullout, the media heavily critcised her and The Telegraph even said: "India is being raped by those who profess to be her soldiers, the guardians of peace." Financial Times reported: "If ever there were a symbol of India’s ambitions to become a modern nation, it would surely be the Nano, the tiny car with the even tinier price-tag. A triumph of homegrown engineering, the $2,200 (€1,490, £1,186) Nano encapsulates the dream of millions of Indians groping for a shot at urban prosperity. That process has stalled...No big economy has prospered without undergoing a huge, often brutal, shift of labour from the countryside to cities and from farms to factories...There is a yawning gap with China. India’s information technology and service sector, no matter how dynamic, simply cannot absorb enough labour. To truly shine, India will need millions, perhaps tens of millions, more manufacturing jobs. Why has it not created them?"
Currently, Tata Motors is reportedly manufacturing Nano at its existing Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) plant and a plant has been proposed for Sanand (Gujarat), though it's yet to be seen whether it would be successful or not (like Singur). Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri reiterated on 4 October 2008 that his government would welcome the Tata Group, if it opts to establish Nano's plant in Uttarakhand state. The company is hoping to produce 50 Nanos per day in Pantnagar by January–March 2009. Ratan Tata has said that Nano will be brought within set timelines. Not many dealers will be appointed till March 2009. The company will bank on existing dealer network for Nano initially. The new Nano Plant could have a capacity of 5,00,000 units, compared to 3,00,000 for Singur. Gujarat has also agreed to match all the incentives offered by West Bengal government. |
