Business Saurabh Sharma Saurabh Sharma sharma.saurabh02@gmail.com Saurabh Sharma Analysis

It’s small but beautiful. It’s cheap but not inferior. It is controversial yet people like it. The world’s cheapest car ‘Nano’ or popularly called the people’s car will hit the road on 24th March. The booking for the car started from 9th April. At hindsight, the story of Nano is burdened with a bag of controversies. However, during its launch, the past did not seem to matter as the little wonder overshadowed everything. Road for Nano was not easy. Even before hitting the road the first manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal was shut down due to protests. Farmer’s agitation to get back their farming land on which the plant was getting constructed forced Tata to pull out and move to Sanand in Gujrat. Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand would roll out the batches of car till the Sanand plant becomes fully operational. But now the dreams of many Indians to own a car may come true. And so Ratan Tata’s. His dream to provide an affordable car to the people of India is shaped by 500 odd engineers of Tata Motors. In terms of price Nano may be cheap. But on quality front it is as good as any other car. Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor of Autocar India, the leading car and bike magazine, says “Much of the Nano’s aura centred on what Tata Motors could deliver for Rs 1 lakh. After driving it, I can endorse that it’s turned out to be a proper car and not an excuse for one”. Further elaborating on the features of the cars he added, “For a car with a small footprint, the interior space is unbelievable. The doors open wide and high seats allow you to slide in with ease. Car claims to give a fuel efficiency of 23.6 km per liter. This seems to be pretty decent for any Indian car. Nano also meets the BS III emission standards. On the launch Ratan Tata shared his feeling with the media. He said, “We are the gates of offering a new form of transport to people of India and later to other parts of the world. I feel very excited also because we have gone more during the last mile by putting Plan B into action, by putting the car out now rather than waiting till December ''09. We have been able to successfully mitigate the loss of time. We hope our dreams come true and Nano proves to be the product that it was meant to be”. While the car has cast smiles on everyone’s face, a few environmentalists are frowning in disapproval. In an interview to a leading magazine, R.K. Pachauri, chairman of Inter-government panel for climate change (IPCC) and Noble laureate, said, “This represents a failure of policy and lack of an effective alternative to public transport. Nano is going to increase emissions exponentially and add to the congestion”. Nano is also planning to make inroads in the international market. Tata Motors has already drawn a plan to launch it in developing markets of Africa and south-east Asia. Given the demand it may also get under way in Europe, UK and US. At the time when the global economy is in downturn and markets are sluggish, Nano may find it difficult to get space in garage. But it certainly peps up the aspiration level of people. At least, there is something to cheer about. Harumi Gondo hgondo@upi.com Saurabh Sharma 05/14/2009 Analysis

The world’s cheapest car ‘Nano’ or popularly called the people’s car will hit the road on 24th March. The booking for the car started from 9th April.

It’s small but beautiful. It’s cheap but not inferior. It is controversial yet people like it. The world’s cheapest car ‘Nano’ or popularly called the people’s car will hit the road on 24th March. The booking for the car started from 9th April. At hindsight, the story of Nano is burdened with a bag of controversies. However, during its launch, the past did not seem to matter as the little wonder overshadowed everything. Road for Nano was not easy. Even before hitting the road the first manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal was shut down due to protests. Farmer’s agitation to get back their farming land on which the plant was getting constructed forced Tata to pull out and move to Sanand in Gujrat. Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand would roll out the batches of car till the Sanand plant becomes fully operational. But now the dreams of many Indians to own a car may come true. And so Ratan Tata’s. His dream to provide an affordable car to the people of India is shaped by 500 odd engineers of Tata Motors. In terms of price Nano may be cheap. But on quality front it is as good as any other car. Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor of Autocar India, the leading car and bike magazine, says “Much of the Nano’s aura centred on what Tata Motors could deliver for Rs 1 lakh. After driving it, I can endorse that it’s turned out to be a proper car and not an excuse for one”. Further elaborating on the features of the cars he added, “For a car with a small footprint, the interior space is unbelievable. The doors open wide and high seats allow you to slide in with ease. Car claims to give a fuel efficiency of 23.6 km per liter. This seems to be pretty decent for any Indian car. Nano also meets the BS III emission standards. On the launch Ratan Tata shared his feeling with the media. He said, “We are the gates of offering a new form of transport to people of India and later to other parts of the world. I feel very excited also because we have gone more during the last mile by putting Plan B into action, by putting the car out now rather than waiting till December ''09. We have been able to successfully mitigate the loss of time. We hope our dreams come true and Nano proves to be the product that it was meant to be”. While the car has cast smiles on everyone’s face, a few environmentalists are frowning in disapproval. In an interview to a leading magazine, R.K. Pachauri, chairman of Inter-government panel for climate change (IPCC) and Noble laureate, said, “This represents a failure of policy and lack of an effective alternative to public transport. Nano is going to increase emissions exponentially and add to the congestion”. Nano is also planning to make inroads in the international market. Tata Motors has already drawn a plan to launch it in developing markets of Africa and south-east Asia. Given the demand it may also get under way in Europe, UK and US. At the time when the global economy is in downturn and markets are sluggish, Nano may find it difficult to get space in garage. But it certainly peps up the aspiration level of people. At least, there is something to cheer about. TATA Nano 2009-04-20 00:07:00 UTC 2010-03-07 23:07:16 UTC