Tata Nano the car which captured the Imagination of the world as the cheapest car on the planet. It was a car which anyone could afford and was expected to fill the Indian roads, and was the worst thing for the environment as per some pessimists. But non of it happened the car is not selling like it was expected to sell, what went wrong is it a really bad car?
When the first maruti 800 was launched it was the cheapest car at the time, but it was never sold as a cheapest car but a car for the middle class family. the Maruti 800 sold on it's strengths and through word of mouth publicity. The main reason Nano did not sell was the cheapest car tag overshadowed it's strengths.
Product placement and marketing can make or break a product, and TATA learned it the hard way. Here is a nice article written by a student at IIM calcutta on what went wrong for Nano. Tapioca and the Tata Nano Lessons in using PR for Marketing
Well that does not stop us from finding what are the strengths of the car, this is not a review of Nano but a re-view of it .
1) Interior Space
This is the biggest USP of TATA Nano! for a car which looks so small from the outside". you only have to sit in the car to realize that it has more headroom and legroom than a car that costs 4-5 Lacs. Even 2 people with height more than 6 ft can sit one behind the other with legroom to spare. It was possible because unlike other cars which have their engine in the bonnet, Nano has it under the aft seat, thus giving more space in shorter length of the car. Also the height of Nano is more than that of Hyundai Santro (the original tallboy) so there is a lot of headroom too.
See this comparison of 13 hatchbacks by overdrive magazine, Nano is ranked top in the ingress-egress test, and is ranked above many "bigger" cars in the test for comfort."The amount of room you have inside the nano needs to be experienced to be believed. what augments the feeling of space inside the cabin is the car’s tall-boy design that offers generous headroom while the high seating position for both front and rear passengers translates to a good all round view. Throw in four big windows to allow ample air and light, and the nano easily becomes one of the most spacious small hatchbacks, no, cars in the country."- Autocar India
2) Fuel Economy
"Kitna deti hai" this is the most common question asked about a car by we Indians, well Tata nano is the most fuel efficient petrol vehicle you can get and something you need against the rising prices of fuel.
It has a ARAI certified mileage of 25 kmpl, and very low carbon footprint of 92.7g/Km among all cars in India.
The real life figures for mileage are 18-20 kmpl in city with AC and 23-24 kmpl on the highway with AC which is better than other vehicles.
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3) Safety
People assume that Nano is not a safe vehicle to drive, well this is the biggest misconception about the car.
The car has been thoroughly crash tested in UK at the MIRA test facility and it exceeds the current Indian safety regulations, undergoing full frontal crash, roof crush, side door intrusion, It has got crumple zones in the front to absorb the impact and the rear hatch witch does not open is part of the structure hence adding to the rigidity of the structure. Tata Nano is as safe as any other vehicle that does not have airbags.
See this video on why Nano does not require collapsible steering column, and the placement of engine at the rear was a boon for the safety engineers.
Read more.
4) Air Conditioning
Tata Nano is a low cost car that does not mean that it has a weak AC but a very powerful one among the cars in it's segment,
Also the effect of AC on the performance of the car is very little in the Nano.
Jay Leno tests the car to find the AC which he got upgraded in his Mc Laren F1 is still not as good as the one in Nano.
Start to play from 7:06mins
5) Drivability on rough terrain.
Well this also is one of the Nano's strong points among all hatchbacks and many cars as it has very good ground clearance of 180 mm, the same what you get in a Mahindra scorpio.
This means Nano can handle dirt roads, village roads, big potholes and uneven roads very well without damaging the under body of the car even when loaded.
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6) Does Nano climb hills? yes it does and does it very well.
Given the small engine of Nano people always doubt the capability of Nano on the hills, well even though the engine may not be powerful as other cars what Nano has is light weight , small turning radius for those sharp turns on hills and most importantly is is rear wheel driven. The advantage of rear drive is on steep inclines the distribution of weight is more on the rear of the car thus the rear wheels get more traction.
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7) Nano: a solution to parking woes in city.
The pictures are self explanatory, you will not have to do much hunting for space to park your Nano, it's compact dimensions give it a big advantage.
8) Powerful Head lights of Tata Nano
Nano also breaks the tradition of low cost cars by giving it very powerful lights which are more powerful than many costlier cars, the top end version also gets fog lamps which have good lateral spread and can be useful in driving through rough terrain at night.
9) Speed and acceleration of Nano.
Even with the low powered engine that Nano has it has commendable pickup, this is due to the less weight of the Nano and the peak 51nm of torque is produced in a lowly 2500-4000rpm band as opposed to most litre-class small cars that produce their peak power at points between 3500 and 4500rpm. This means that you will not be lagging behind the traffic even with the small engine.
This video does prove the point.
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Benefits of rear wheel drive
10) How does it cost so less.
Nano has not been designed like any other vehicle, had to they done that, instead of a car people would have got something similar to a autorikshaw with a canvas top and no doors for the price. Nano involves a lot of clever engineering and innovation around cost to make it a proper car at a never before imagined price.
Some of the features that saved costs are.
- Having smaller engine sufficient to power the Nano.
- Engine has single balancer shaft instead of normal two.
- Smaller body dimensions hence savings in material.
- Having 3 lug nuts in wheels instead of four(savings by volume)
- Using same seats for front left and right.
- Power steering not required due to RWD design.
- Drum brakes instead of disc, sufficient for the max speed of Nano.
- Interior panels and fitting do not have fasteners, push fit design.
- No openable rear hatch door, savings on cost and weight also adds to rigidity of structure.
- Collapsible steering column not required due to crash absorbing structure.
Nano is a triumph of design and involves a lot of clever design to give a car that is great in many aspects and is no less of a car, but people are full of egos and prejudices to realize this fact.
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Tata files 37 patents for design of Nano
11) 1 lakh car? not any more.
People still assume that Nano is available at 1 lakh, they will be surprised to find that on road price for the base model is 1.8 lakh and the top end version of the Nano is about 2.4 lakhs on road.
The reason being when TATA first announced the 1 lakh car concept in 2003.
When the car was launched in 2009 the cost of materials had already risen by 40 %.
Over the years the price of Nano has risen along with the prices of other cars due to inflation and other factors.
12) Fire Issue
Initial Tata Nano's catching fire was unfortunate and the reasons for such fires were investigated and the car has been provided with additional safety features to prevent a re occurrence
Fires were due to fitment of additional foreign electrical equipment having poor wiring causing short circuit or foreign material left on the exhaust system.
Other cars which have faced fire issues.
13) More on Nano
Nice song on Tata Nano that I came across
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Making of TATA Nano- on National geographic channel shows the people behind the Nano and the design processes which led to it's development and the struggles it had to face.
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- 75 days, 28 states, one nano
- Why you shouldn’t write off the Tata Nano just yet
- Autocar India: Tata Nano long term ownership review part I
- Autocar India: Tata Nano long term ownership review part II
