Front Seat: Want A Nano? Buy A Ticket!

Aug - 09 | By: RPM Canada | no comments.

Filed under : 1. April 2009, Front Seat

By now, many of you are well aware of the “cheapest” new car offered in the world. That, of
course, would be the Tata Nano. The Nano has room for four occupants, and is 3.1 metres long (10.1 feet), 1.5 metres wide (4.9 feet) and 1.6 metres high (5.2 feet). The Nano is powered by an all-aluminum, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 30-horsepower multipoint fuel injected gasoline engine that gets 4.3 L/100 or approximately 60 mpg, mounted in the rear and driving the rear wheels. It meets all of India’s safety standards, as well as environmental requirements with tailpipe emission performance that exceed regulatory requirements. In fact, in terms of overall pollutants, it has a lower pollution level than many of the two-wheelers being manufactured in India today. All this and more, for the paltry price of only $2,500 US!

The “Peoples Car,” as it’s been branded (sound familiar?), is the brainchild of Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Motors, the Mumbai-based conglomerate which just happens to be the largest corporation in India. His reason for pushing forward with the Nano was, of course, to make money for the corporation, but to also try and make travel safer for the billion-plus people that drive on the dangerous roads of his country. As Tata put it at the recent unveiling, “I observed families riding on two-wheelers – the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family.” He went on to say “Tata Motors’ engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realize this goal. Today, we indeed have a People’s Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions. We are happy to present the People’s Car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility.”

Unfortunately for many families, owning one of the first Nanos will take more than money, as it will also take some luck. There has been such a demand for the first allotment of 100,000 units scheduled to be delivered to 1,000 different cities on April 9th, Tata decided to conduct a lottery. They have been taking details of everyone clamouring to get their hands on the Nano, and a computerized system is set to draw the lucky names out of its digital hat. Winners of the first “People’s Car” will certainly have to consider themselves fortunate, as the odds of beating out one of the over 1.2 billion people in the country would have to be considered, well, long at best.

Maybe a lottery is the key to turning around slumping sales here at home. No, I don’t think that would work!

Until next issue…Keep it Rollin’.