India’s Tata Group has unveiled a 2,500-dollar car billed as the world’s cheapest amid predictions the no-frills compact could revolutionise how the nation of 1.1 billion people travels.
The launch of the Tata Nano was a landmark in the history of transportation…said 70-year-old tycoon Ratan Tata, head of the giant conglomerate. He said he wanted to make “a safe, affordable and all-weather transport — a people’s car, designed to meet all safety standards and emissions laws and accessible to all.”
The Nano has a small, rear-mounted 33bhp, 624cc engine but no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering in the basic model, although two deluxe versions will be available.
The critter gets 50mpg and is already front-crash test-certified.
Auto analysts say the Nano could also have a major impact on the way global car firms think about costs.
The Nano may “revolutionise car costs downward,” said Indian auto analyst Murad Ali Baig, adding it was bound to be followed by other low-cost cars.
So-called environmentalists who hate the Nano hate all cars already. So, dedicate your energies to providing viable mass transit. When and where possible. Please.
These critter will be replacing smog-generating used cars and 2-stroke motorbikes that have been all poor people can afford. It’s a net win-win.
Same goes for reviewers who need 400bhp and 35″ wheels wired to their gonads to feel like a man. These dudes don’t care about basic transportation for anyone else.
Useless in the winter, but I would want one if I lived in the South. Not the dirrty south either.
Same goes for reviewers who need 400bhp and 35″ wheels wired to their gonads to feel like a man.
Damn, my gonads are only 300bhp & 17″! I don’t have the money for bigger gonads.
#2 – use a credit card like a proper Amurican.
My inner urban dictionary tells me that the Tata Nano is an oxymoron.
Using Bablefish I discovered:
Hindi: Tata Nano
English: Ford Model T 🙂
There is a great potential here for history to repeat itself.
If they ever come to the States, picture this:
You’re 16 years old and live in Los Angeles County. You buy one of these for commuting to school and running errands.
The car is $2500. Your insurance company wants $5000. Every year.
It’s like buying your own coffin. They can even bury you in it unless of course you are cremated on the spot of your “only” traffic accident.
Looks way too much like a Chevy. Though it probably runs better.
Llet’s see, 1.1G / 20 = 55M, X $2500 = 13.25 billion dollars?
If what 1 out of 20 Indians, 5% of the population, would spend buying these cars could be spent on a simple, modern rail system, which would be better for them and the environment, in the long run.
Would 13 billion buy much of a rail infrastructure, starting with what’s already there? Maybe not, but it would be an excellent start to something that would benefit everyone, not just those who could afford the car…
Doesn’t matter, since the usual suspects wouldn’t profit from it. And we know private profit outweighs public good, don’t we? 😉
Let’s see. Convince 5% of the poor people in India – the market for Nanos – they should give that money to their incorruptible politicians several years in advance – because they promise to build a proper network of public transport with it.
Have you any perception #9 THC what the Indian government’s track record is to date on providing safe, reliable public transport?
The skinny little wheels make this one look like no fun, but it’s a good start.
If everyone on the road drove small cars, there’d be little safety advantage to a bigger car.
This could reduce pollution a bit.
Oh, well, sure, if you’re gonna bring up that… 😛
This car doesn’t seem to be that much smaller or more fuel efficient than other cars, just cheaper.
50mpg is 80 kpg about 22 Km/L. The equivalent of the Toyota Sienna is known to get up to 13 Km/L.
The wheel bearings are designed to function at 45kph, but at higher speeds they are designed to wear out. This was built in to save unsprung weight. Top speed on the CVT transmission is 75kph. Room for a briefcase only. Tata knows that they won’t be able to pass the safety standards in 3-4 years, but by then something else will come along. Basic transport for the masses, but at what cost to people?
Room for 5, plus 10 more on the roof.
Safety standards? Remember these, these… cars? – will not exactly be sharing the roads with Lincoln Town Cars and Mercedes.
The kind of mass these things have, two of ’em colliding at typical speeds will produce all the world-shaking impact of two shopping carts… ;P
That’s the part everyone forgets about wee cars. If there weren’t monster SUVs and such on the roads to hit them, they’re actually quite safe among their own kind.
Yes and if the government didn’t give doctors and lawyers back the first $70,000 they spend on a car, there might be fewer big pieces of shit rolling down the road with some airhead on a cell phone at the wheel.
We need this and public transportation in the US, not larger and uglier crap.
Tata sells (or tries to sell) pick-ups and small cars here in Spain. The quality is said to be lousy…
Now if they can keep the freaking COWS off the street they will be great.
In the summer a blade easily attaches to the bottom for grass cutting. Also, an optional Golf Bag rack is available.
If you ever had a flat while out riding your bicycle, you could carry this thing as the spare!
It looks and has the smell of an Indian version of the Yugo…which was only slightly better than a NoGo.
Disgusting looking thing, but individual cars, in any form, beat the algore out of mass transit, in any form. So more power to them.
This reminds me of a real cool/dorky looking car parked in a vacant lot that looked a bit like this, maybe 1960?
A pair of seats with a sort of toy car built around them and a front door that swung open. An early Peugeot econo car?
Remind anyone of anything?
This is the next gay item for “heterosexual” Mac users.
#16, these cars will be sharing the road with plenty of trucks. And many of the truck drivers are young and/or unlicensed. Remember the traffic ballet video we had a couple days ago.
But these cars will generally be replacing scooters, which are guaranteed to be less safe than the Nano.
I want a DEMO…
Im in the High plains, We get 60+mph winds, and SNOW…
Lets see how far I can sail this thing…
I like it. They expect to sell 250,000 of these a year initially, and eventually to sell a million a year. That should make a lot of people who would not have been able to buy a new car happy.
What can $2500 buy you in a used car?
These cars aren’t that different fromwhats already on the road in India, Japan, or probably even Europe.
And I thought the Aztec and the Prius were styling clunkers. On the other hand, this sort of thing may be what we all will be looking at in showrooms of the future.
(now imagine cruising the strip looking for babes in a souped-up customized one).