The Times of India - March 5th, 2008
Mumbai: Ten years ago, not many people at the Geneva Motor Show gave a second look to a little known company from the Third World called Tata Motors when it unveiled the Indica. It was just another wannabe. But on Tuesday, when the same company unveiled its latest creation at the 78th edition of the Geneva Motor Show, all incredulous eyes in the crammed stall were tuned to the world’s cheapest production car — the Tata Nano.
Ratan N Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, summed up the journey so far, “1998, when we displayed the Indica at Geneva, marked our entry into passenger cars. The last decade has been a period of significant development in Tata Motors’ capabilities. The display of the Nano, which is a first for the global automobile industry, signifies this inhouse progression.” With a sticker price of Rs 1 lakh ($2,500 or euro 1,700), the Nano might just change the way cars are designed and built.
Auto experts swarming the motor show believe that the Nano has charted a new path for low-cost design. After seeing the car, Steve Cropley, editor-in-chief of Autocar UK, told the chairman, “Mr Tata, a lot of automobile design experts are anxiously waiting to see the car, because they are all wondering how this was possible.”
The Nano was first displayed at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi in January this year. Apart from a near stampede situation at the Tata Motor stall while the car was being unveiled, the Nano website registered four million hits on the first day of the launch. The Nano, which will be first launched in India later this year, is also aimed at the export market.
In fact, senior executives at Tata Motors have said that in the next few years, the company will come up with an export-oriented variant of the Nano, which will have additional features to cater to the requirements of the export markets.
Although Tata declined to quote the international price of the Nano, he said that it could be around the euro 1,700-mark.
Tata also said that the company was open to manufacturing the car overseas through license agreements. “Meeting the demand for the Nano is our primary criteria and if required, we will license-manufacture it in potential cities worldwide,” Tata said.
