One small step for Tata, one giant leap for autokind?
So what's the car of a million dreams across India?
If Tata Motors has it right, it will be the Nano: a cut-rate engineering marvel with a rear engine and front trunk space. Oh, and a price tag of about $2,000.
The tiny Nano will lack many of the standard accoutrements of cars in the West.
It won't have airbags or back-seat safety belts. There won't be power steering or an anti-lock brake system. But with a base price of 100,000 rupees, middle-class India may just stampede its way to car-dealerships when orders for the Nano begin in mid-April.
“The euphoria over the Nano is unmatched,” said Premanand Shenoy, chief executive of the Prerna Motors, a Tata dealer in Bangalore. “We have already held staff meetings on how to handle the thousands of people expected to walk in that day.”
The Nano project took off after Ratan Tata — the famed chairman of the Indian conglomerate that spans salt, steel and software — promised to build a “people’s car" for the masses now driving two-wheelers.
In India’s traffic-clogged city roads, millions ride on scooters and motorcycles — with sometimes as many as four or five people hanging precariously to the same vehicle.
The Nano aims to fulfill middle-class India’s desire to own a car, helping the not-so-rich claw their way up another rung of prosperity. Analysts estimate that latent demand for a low-priced car could boost the Indian car market's size by 65 percent, even in the face of a slowing economy.
Nirupa Venkatesh, a Bangalore-based dentist, is eager to order the Nano as the family’s second car. She and her husband, a gynecologist, already own a Toyota SUV.
“I want the Nano because it is cheap and (the) best,” said Venkatesh, who like many price-conscious Indians wants a no-frills product. She will use the car to shop, run errands and drop her 9-year old daughter off at school.
