Tata Nano was the outcome of a life-long dream of India’s highly reputed businessman and Tata Group chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata. This man is at the helm of India’s affairs of business for the last decade had cherished a vision to make a car that would be inexpensive enough to be afforded by the not-so-fortunate common masses of the country. Tata Nano was the culmination of that dream powered by sheer will, hard work; research-based innovation sustained coordination, and firmly fought tough challenges that were barriers in areas of the social and political arena.
Tata Nano is an engineering marvel. The car was built with a consumer target segment in small cities and towns and was to cost around 2000 USD, to be the world’s cheapest car. It was compared to Volkswagen Beetle for being the ‘people’s car.’ It was expected to meet consumers’ demands and the world’s attention due to its affordable small price despite the rising material costs and other resource acquisitions. The car gave the competitors sleepless nights as they feared the loss of their market share. The result was the slash of prices of cars after its launch, and many automobile companies entering to make a competitive car of their own or out of collaboration, but not yet successful. This essay aims to evaluate the automobile Tata Nano based on criteria like price, affordability, consumer demands, interior design, cost-cutting characteristics, available model versions, technical specifications, environmental concerns, besides safety standards.
The uniqueness of Tata Nano
Tata Nano was engineered to be exceptional on many terms. But the exclusivity has been its affordability due to a very small price of INR 100,000 or 2000 USD. This price gave the car the ‘world’s cheapest’ tag. The low price allowed the two-vehicle owners to upgrade them by registering in advance for the car. This consumer target segment mainly belonged to rural, semi-urban areas, small towns, and cities. But the consumer psychology or in general market psychology is entirely complex. Consumers want the best for their price. This proved to be true for Tata Nano as well as consumers began evaluating the product on various accounts besides the price. Other factors played an important role in such a perception as the competitors challenged whether the car met all the international safety standards (ConsumerReports.org 2009).
The car’s exterior was designed in Italy. It has 2 cylinder petrol with Bosch Motronic engine management platform, power 37 hp, the compression ratio of 9.5:1, rear-wheel drive, 4-speed manual transmission, turning radius of 4 meters, acceleration from 0-60 kmph in 8 seconds, a maximum speed of 105 kmph, the fuel efficiency of around 25 km per liter, 4 seat belts, trunk capacity of 150 L, 12-inch wheels and ground clearance of 180mm. The cost-cutting characters include the presence of one windscreen wiper, one wing mirror, no power steering, no airbags, only 2 cylinders; air conditioner, radio players to be added as accessories. The materials for assembly were acquired from well-known suppliers, so one can be sure enough that the car was a standard one both in terms of technical specificities obtained through good research and acquisition of good materials (Tata Nano News 2011).
There were three model versions available in the market after the launch. They were Tata Nano Standard at the base price, and the other two had accessories and were a bit expensive over the base model and were called Tata Nano CX and Tata Nano LX. LX version had central locking, fog lamps, air conditioners; tri-spoke steering wheel, and mobile charging capability. The biggest concern was related to the safety standard as there were incidents of fire, and consumer interests declined. Further questions were raised about the increase in pollution, Tata Nano would cause because almost anyone would be able to purchase and the number of cars would increase on the roads to cause traffic jams too. These concerns were mostly manipulative as if the other cars were not contributing to the environmental issues.
The product was brilliant in the automobile sector, and went on to win many awards for its innovative features and bringing the imagination and engineering of the Tata Nano team to the forefront. The product met the requirements for the designated consumer segment in India. Thus Tata Nano was a revelation and a revolution in the automobile industry, paving way for the design and launch of new concepts of cheap cars in the world.
Works Cited
ConsumerReports.org. “Dawn of the $2,000 Car- Tata Nano.” Consumer News.
ConsumerReports.org, 2009. Web.
Tata Nano News. “Amazing Car Nano.” Tata Nano News. Tata Nano News, 2011. Web.