Tata Nano

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.

Newsweek identified the Nano as a part of a "new breed of 21st-century cars" that embody "a contrarian philosophy of smaller, lighter, cheaper" and portend a new era in inexpensive personal transportation — and potentially, "global gridlock" . The Wall Street Journal confirms a global trend toward small cars, which includes the Nano.

With the car itself currently under final development, ongoing difficulties at the Nano's proposed manufacturing plant in Singur have put construction of the plant on hold, delaying the project indefinitely.

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.

Pricing strategy

Tata initially targeted the vehicle as "the least expensive production car in the world" — aiming for a starting price of 100,000 rupees or approximately $2300 US despite rapidly rising material prices.

As of August, 2008 material costs have risen from 13% to 23% over the car’s development, and Tata now faces the choice of introducing the car with an artificially low introductory price, raising the price of the car, or foregoing profit on the car — the latter an unlikely proposition., while an increased price on the Nano will likely decrease demand

History and conception

The project to create the world's most inexpensive car began in 2003, under the Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan Tata, inspired by the number of Indian families with two-wheeled rather than four-wheeled transport. The Nano's development has been tempered by the company's success in producing the low cost 4 wheeled Ace truck in May 2005

Contrary to speculation that the car might be a simple four-wheeled auto rickshaw, The Times of India reported the vehicle is "a properly designed and built car".The Chairman is reported to have said, "It is not a car with plastic curtains or no roof — it's a real car."

To achieve its design parameters, Tata has refined the manufacturing process, emphasized innovation and sought new design approaches from suppliers. The car was designed at Italy's Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering — with Ratan Tata requesting certain changes, such the elimination of one of two windscreen wipers.

The Nano has 21% more interior space and an 8% smaller exterior, when compared with its closest rival, the Maruti 800. The car will come in different versions, including one standard and two deluxe variants. The deluxe version will have air conditioning, but no power steering. The car is expected to be produced in the Singur plant in West Bengal, which is under construction. The initial production target set by Tata Motors is 250,000 units per year.

Rear mounted engine

The use of a rear mounted engine to help maximize interior space makes the Nano similar to the original Fiat 500, another technically innovative "people's car". A concept vehicle similar in styling to the Nano, also with rear engined layout was proposed by the UK Rover Group in the 1990s to succeed the original Mini but was not put into production. The eventual new Mini was much larger and technically conservative. The independent, and now-defunct, MG Rover Group later based their Rover CityRover on the Tata Indica.

Tata is also reported to be contemplating offering a compressed air engine as an option

Tata Nano Images

Technical specifications

According to Tata Group's Chairman Ratan Tata, the Nano is a 33 PS (33 hp/24 kW) car with a 623 cc rear engine and rear wheel drive, and has a fuel economy of 4.55 L/100 km (21.97 km/L, 51.7 mpg (US), 62 mpg (UK)) under city road conditions, and 3.85 L/100 km on highways (25.97 km/L, 61.1 mpg (US), 73.3 mpg (UK)). It is the first time a two-cylinder non-opposed petrol engine will be used in a car with a single balancer shaft. Tata Motors has reportedly filed 34 patents related to the innovations in the design of Nano, with powertrain accounting for over half of them. The head of Tata Motors' Engineering Research Centre, Girish Wagh has been credited with being one of the brains behind Nano's design.

According to Tata, the Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards. Ratan Tata also said, 'The car has passed the full-frontal crash and the side impact crash'.

Powertrain

* Engine:
o 2 cylinder petrol with Bosch multi-point fuel injection (single injector) all aluminium 33 horsepower (25 kW) 624 cc (38 cu in)
o Value Motronic engine management platform from Bosch
o 2 valves per cylinder overhead camshaft
o Compression ratio: 9.5:1
o bore × stroke: 73.5 × 73.5 mm
o Power: 33 PS (33 hp/24 kW) @ 5500 rpm
o Torque: 48 N·m (35 ft·lbf) @ 2500 rpm
* Rear wheel drive, 4-speed manual transmission
* Steering: mechanical rack and pinion