Tata’s NANO is the most talked about car at 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi. Nano is now the cheapest car in India that will hit roads later this year. It is priced at One Lakh Rupess (about $2500). Tata Nano comes at half the price of its nearest rival Maruti 800 which is priced at 1.96 Lakhs.
Nano will have 4-speed manual gearshift with 624-cc petrol engine generating 33 bhp of power, a 30-litre fuel tank. It has a compact size of 1.5m width X 3.1m length and comes with tubeless tyres. It even scores in terms of fuel efficiency with mileage of 20km/litre. Tata Nano could be cheapest car in the world, check out the price comparison of cars worldwide:
- Tata Nano – Rs 1 Lakh
- Maruti 800 (India) – Rs 1.96 Lakh
- Cherry QQ3 (China) – Rs 2.08 Lakh
Rival auto makers seem bemused and lost with Tata’s offering. Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto said… “I have seen the car, but I don’t want to comment on it.” Hmm… shock and awe!
Shinzo Nakanishi of Maruti Suzuki said…“We cannot make a cheaper car. We don’t know how to make a 1 Lakh car unless we sacrifice something.”
While Venu Srinivasan of TVS Motors said…“It’s a red letter day for Indian Manufacturing. It will redefine the way the world will lok at Indian Manufacturing.”
Nano is not the first One Lakh car of South Asia. In 2004 Pakistan’s Habib Motors launched One Lakh Rupee car called ‘Sitara’. Car did not fare well as it resembled more to a cart rather than a car.
Experts believe that Tata Nano may cause dent in sales of Motorbikes rather than existing brands of cars. Well, need to wait for its commercial launch and see how things pan out there forward. [Excerpts from Press Releases – Offical Website of Tata Nano]
