Nanobyte!

At last the people's car is here! and keeping in trend with the high tech society of India, Its called the Nano!

revealed to the world last year, initial reactions have varied from cute to interesting to modern. It does look exactly like how most predictions of future city cars looked like. Compact, spacious, cheap, efficient and decent looking all in one package. Lots of critics have been pessimistic about the quality of the vehicle, from safety, to comfort. But first impressions have clearly proved the pessimism to be just that. Pessimism. Clearly being launched at a 1-lakh price tag means certain draw backs will exist. Ratan Tata has mentioned that several times. But the game winner here is that, the drawbacks are in places where you will least identify it. the layman's requirements have been met successfully and that is where the success of the product lies.

The vehicle is not available for a test drive. Most motoring hacks have been given test vehicles but not the general public. This is due to the high levels of interest generated. Infact I dropped by at the local TAFE showroom where I know the salesperson well cos I bought a car frm them sometime back. There was a lot of fanfare with Aqua playing in the background and fancy strobe lights around the car. there was a huge crown mulling that I could not even see the car frm the road. It looked more like a party was underway! there was a security guard vehemently protecting the car from the crowd. No one was allowed near it. I was pretty amused by this sight and mentioned it to the sales guy.

Me: I don't recall this much protection for the Linea(a 7-9 lakh car!) when it was launched
SG: Yes sir, we didn't have this many people walking into the showroom then! In fact We've never had this much crowd at our showroom till date!
Me: But why so much security?
SG: Well Lotsa people keep coming in to look at the car and we've had some people keep opening and closing the doors and they broke the door on the safari! had we left the Nano unprotected we would have just the frame remaining!
Me: Right.

Anyways back to the car. it's impressive, hugely spacious and should I mention this; One car mag says it's easier to get in and out of the Nano than an S-classe! it's got the right features necessary and fits the right pockets. A first car for many families and a 2nd city only car for bigger families. In fact I hear many variants are in the pipeline including a 650cc diesel, and hybrid or pure electric car based on the Indica EV that was jointly developed in Norway. yes there exists an Indica and Indica Vista which run about 200km on a full charge purely on batteries. slated for production in Norway and for sale in Europe. It is expected to come to india sometime in the future. This technology may filter down into the Nano as well and then will make for a very good enviro friendly city car. it surely will be much better than the current Reva.

The launch of the Nano has made quite a stir on the international stage as well that, quite a lot of motoring hacks from abroad have dropped down to try it out too.

Autocar UK editor-in-chief Steve Cropley had this to say:
This is a car neither the Germans not the American could have built. They'd have lost sight of the cost and marketing objectives. The Japanese could get closer, but they've already had a shot and the resulting car costs twice as much.

Seriously, a tribute to Indian engineering Genius I have to say!
View the video reviews here.




View more videos on the Nano here.
You can book your Nano from April 9th till the 25th. But before that you have to buy an application that costs Rs300. I hear that nearly 500,000 applications are expected to be sold! That itself will cover quite some costs for Tata! Tata has stuck to its promise of a 1 lakh price for the base version which will total on around 1.2Lakhs for the on-road price.

On a lighter note, BBC Topgear say they've found the inspiration behind the design of the Nano. look below for that!








Quite inspiring don't you think! :D