Tata NANO…

Imagine owning a brand new car for $2000 & some change; plus being able to get at least 55 miles to the gallon! That could definitely be my daily beater. Sure, there’s only two guages on the dash (speedometer & fuel level) & top speed is only 60 mph, while I roll on 12″ rims! Think of the money you save on gas & maintenance, while your “show car” can get some rest!

The Tata Nano is a rear-engined, five-passenger city car assembled by Tata Motors. The sales of the car will begin in July 2009, with a starting price tag of 123,000 Rupees(approximately US$2,000 in March 2009). In early 2008 the news magazine 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. Tata is offering the vehicle in three versions: the basic Tata Nano Standard; the Cx; and the Lx. The Cx and Lx versions each have air conditioning, power windows, and central locking. The Cx has power steering, while the Lx has an anti-lock braking system.

Some of the methods Tata used to save costs were:
*The Nano’s hatch-back does not open, instead the rear seats can be folded down to access the hatch-back space.
*It has a single windscreen wiper instead of the usual pair of wipers.
*Some exterior parts of it are glued together, rather than welded.
*No power steering is available, except in the Cx version.
*Its door opening lever was simplified.

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)). Tata Motors has reportedly filed 34 patents related to the innovations in the design of the Nano, with powertrain accounting for more than half of them.

Initially, the Nano will be sold only in India. The company plans to start offering a European version in 2011. It has no plans yet to export the Nano to the U.S., though it has not been ruled out. The petite vehicle could find its way to the U.S. in a couple years, a market that wasn’t on Tata’s agenda before the recent economic downfall and last summer’s gas price increases that caused Americans to shift to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. “We believe that in the next three years or so, we should be able to meet U.S. requirements,” Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, said during the first of a series of elaborate press conferences held during the debut of the Nano on March 23, in Mumbai.

Here’s some links for more info on the NANO:

http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/
http://www.tatamotors.com/