The Tata Nano Unveiled
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 01.11.08
No, they are not environmentalists burning the new Tata Nano in effigy, they are protesting the eviction of farmers to build the factory. But it has been launched and here is the poop on it from the BBC:
The four-door five-seater car, which goes on sale later this year, has a 33bhp, 624cc, engine at the rear. It has no air conditioning, no electric windows and no power steering, but two deluxe models will be on offer. Tata said the car had passed European emission standards and would average about 50 miles to the gallon, or five litres per hundred kilometres. It has a top speed of 43 MPH.
At the unveiling ceremony Mr Tata said: "I observed families riding on two-wheelers - the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. "It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family.
"Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. "Today, we indeed have a People's Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions."
Low emissions are great. But multiply them by millions and one has a problem. It is the eternal problem, Indians are as entitled to drive as we are in the developed world and who are we to criticize when we have our cars. Except our cars plus their cars will kill us all and if we won't give them up we have no right to complain. Henry Ford unleashed a revolution that changed our world and gave us mobility, but at what price. Now we get to watch the rerun. ::BBC
UPDATE: The New Scientist writes about the environmental effect of the Nano.
The Tata Nano will meet European emissions standards on exhaust. If you want to see details, check out the Euro IV line in this table. Bear in mind that exhaust emissions standards regulate the particles that make up smog, not emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (which the EU does not currently regulate, although it's trying).
The numbers come out in favour of the Tata Nano. Euro IV standards are more stringent than those in place for the motorcycles and scooters, which make up a big chunk of India's motorised traffic.
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50 miles per gallon huh?
not bad.
what was that? a hybrid from ford? not even close to 50 mpg?
O Rly?
let the indians have thier cars... if not, once they have the money they will buy hummers
NEWSFLASH: that is the car we should all be driving (unless you have a family of more than 5 that you drive around all the time).
"Except our cars plus their cars will kill us all and if we won't give them up we have no right to complain." exactly. Actuall, if they get their cars and we replace ours by theirs, we will be much better off. Actually, they can have 3 cars per family overall we would all still be fine!
5L/100km is:
47 miles per US gallon
56 miles per Imperial (UK) gallon
I heard that it cost 2500 USD!
Drop an electric motor in that puppy and slap some pv and a wind turbine on top of it and call me happy.
And everyone in the US says it's too expensive to buy a frugal car??
What's eco about the car? It looks like it will create more air pollution for India.
How many grammes of CO2 per KM?
If the top speed is 43 mph, we can assume that they tested this car for fuel consumtion at speeds under that, let say 35mph.
At this speed a lot of car on the road are better then that.
I had an Esteem (station wagon) that was doing
48 mpg at 55 mph.
So the only thing about this car is the price.
Resistance to the air his proportionnal to the cube of the speed.
Sounds a little like a 1969 VW Bug I once owned. About 36 horsepower, no power, no A/C but it had a fabric sun roof, air bags hadn't been invented yet and top speed was around 70 if you dared. Needed a running start to get up some of the hills I drove in central PA at the time but I dearly loved that car. It was also a 6 volt system which meant no jump starts from other cars, but park it downhill for a push and you were fine.
Actually the Nano is more like the French Renault 4CV! (made from 1940s' - 1950's). Iit was designed to put the French people on the road after the war.
I own and drive a 1958 4CV in Dallas Texas and love it... Drive in every weekend! I would be proud to be an American driving a Tata Nano to work!
My first car was a late '80's Chevy Sprint, with about 130,000 miles on it. It had a 3 cylinder Suzuki engine and routinely got better than 40mph, sometimes over 50mph. All while driving it just as fast as I possibly could, back and forth across the country, up and down old dirt roads, loaded w/ bikes, skis, boats, and friends. I drove it past 210,000 and then sold it to somebody else. The car was bruised and battered but it had never required any significant engine repair.
So there is nothing novel or advanced about 40 mph fuel economy. And simple, "cheap" cars can be perfectly reliable. If we in this country (and elsewhere) decide to rethink our priorities, ignore marketing myths, and drop the sense of entitlement which takes the form of a big, fat SUV, we would collectively reduce auto emissions to a fraction of current volumes. This kind of article is encouraging because it illustrates increased awareness. But as the movement progresses and big business wakes up to it, we should be careful not to settle for just a "green" veneer on things (i.e. "hybrid SUV's").
You do realize that at under 50mph, this car will never be approved by the NTSB for highway use. Therefore, you'll never see one on the road in the U.S. I'm not sure I'd even want to go that fast in something that is GLUED together!
Worldwatch has posted a slightly different take on the Nano: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5579
"One car gets 46 miles per gallon, features fancy accessories, and sports two engines with a combined 145 horsepower. The other car reportedly gets 54 miles per gallon, runs on a diminutive 30-horsepower engine, and is positively spartan in its interior trimmings. The first is a darling of the environmentally conscious. The latter is reviled as a climate wrecker. These two vehicles are the Toyota Prius and the newly unveiled Tata Nano, dubbed “the people’s car.” Is there a double standard?"
I would like to know if this is the car featured in the movie" A good year" with Russell Crowe.Loved it.
Hard to envision on the american highways, but not inside crowded cities like Atlanta.
Why isn't this car coming to South-Africa?
Aneta the vehicle in "A Good Year" is a Smart Fortwo Cabriloet
Ya, the Tata Nano would be worthless to anyone that had to get on a highway and travel. It is only good for in town driving only, unless the Tata Motors puts a bigger engine in the car( say 1000cc engine that would do abouts 65 mph). But even than, would it really be a good buy? Would the car bog down if carrying 4 people? Read where it does 43 mph in 14 seconds, thus is the engine the right size to push 1300 lbs? Would the engine last 2 years? Too me, it is a nice looking city car but that is it. If one likes to commute well they best buy a better car. I ride a Bali 250cc scooter ( china made) that gets 70 mpg and does 73 mph on the level. The scooter is a tinker toy and if I were to buy a car, well I think I would feel better knowing it could go slightly faster.
This is great news for Tata Motors, as well as for those whose incomes didn\'t allow for their own car in the past. The Nano is going to make a big difference in the lives of a lot of people, not only for the freedom of movement, but also in increasing the potential for additional commerce (taxis, hauling products longer distances, etc.).
I read a great article about the Nano, though it is actually part of a series of articles. The latest one is titled \"Tata Releases the Nano, No Thanks to Mamata Banerjee\" and it is found at http://economicefficiency.blogspot.com/2009/03/tata-releases-nano-no-thanks-to-mamata.html
Apparently, the politics behind building this car is out of this world.