What can a car that costs €1,500 deliver? Ben Olivertravels to India to drive the Tata Nano and find out.
HOW DO you judge the €1,500 car? What do you compare it to, when there hasn't been anything like it before? The Tata Nano isn't just a new car, but an entirely new type of car. Five years ago, Ratan Tata simply decided that his company would build and sell a car for half the cost of the cheapest car in India and a quarter of the cost of the cheapest car in Europe. Now it's almost ready.
So, in judging the result, do you start with the view that because this is a car, it ought to be compared with the comfort and features of other cars, even if they cost at least twice as much? Or do you start with the price, and an assumption that anything that offers four wheels, four doors and a roof for the price of a scooter must be a good thing?
We think you should do neither. We think you have to make the same mental leap as Tata's boss and engineers did, and chuck away all your preconceptions and expectations, your notions of value and car-ness. Then you need to start again. It's not easy. But look at the Nano entirely without prejudice and we think you'll agree with us that it is a staggeringly important, clever, exciting new thing.
We'll get on to why in a moment. First, a little context. Listen to Ratan Tata talk about his baby and it sounds like a social project rather than a commercial enterprise. Each year, 130,000 people are killed on Indian roads but only 15 per cent of them die in cars, buses or trucks. Far more are swept off their bicycles or scooters. Families of four often travel together on one motorbike; the consequences of an accident hardly need explaining.
Tata wanted to build a car that those currently on two wheels might reasonably afford. The Nano was not designed to undercut existing cars; its mission is to make car ownership possible for hundreds of millions of people who simply couldn't consider it before.
On to the basics first. When news first started to leak of this car around three years ago, we were led to expect something utterly un-carlike, possibly without glass or doors and with a fabric roof and plastic panels.
Since its unveiling at the Delhi motor show in January 2008 we all now know that it is a proper, four-door steel monocoque; it looks suspiciously like a normal car.
Now that we've sat inside a production cabin, we're pleased to report that it feels like one inside too. At 1.6m the Nano's height disguises its length; up close it's bigger than it appears in the pictures, though hardly long at 3.1m, 60cm longer than an original Smart. But because the mechanical package is so tiny and the front and rear ends so bluff and upright, virtually its entire length is usable cabin space. It is, frankly, massive inside, with considerably more rear space than the new, Indian-made, Suzuki Alto five-door city car we tested previously.
The Nano's rear bench will take three, and one six-footer can sit behind another with head- and knee-room to spare.
After that, the standard car comparisons start to run out. To save on all the pressings and hinges and catches there's no rear hatch. To access the 100-litre, 50kg boot you flip the rear seats forward; a glass-only hatch might be offered as an option.
The fuel tank is a tiny 15 litres, but at over 60 mpg (4.7L/100km) you'll get a near-200 mile range. It sits under the front seats, but you'll look in vain for a fuel filler flap. It's a simple plastic funnel hidden under the tiny front bonnet along with the washer filler; full-size spare wheel; unboosted, non-ABS brakes; unassisted rack-and-pinion steering and not much else.
The entire engine - 624cc, two cylinders and 33bhp - and rear suspension assembly is held in a cradle which attaches under the boot with just four bolts. Reducing the cost of building the Nano is as important as reducing the cost of its parts; the 12-inch wheels attach with three bolts, rather than the usual four.
There will be three trim levels, with the base model available in just three solid colours and with black rather than body-coloured bumpers and door handles. The seats have been designed with the minimum possible padding, but remain comfortable. The entire instrument panel carries little more than an airbag-less steering wheel, a single stalk and a centrally-mounted speedo to cut the cost of the left-hand-drive version, but it's made of an impressively thick, pricey-looking plastic.
There are a couple of blanking panels under the speedo; the middle trim level fills one of them with an air-con control, and also covers some of the exposed metal pillars in the cabin. The top trim level adds a heater, and a console around the gear lever with cupholders and controls for the electric ront windows. To cut manufacturing costs there are no options; you just choose one of the three trim levels, but if you want to save up you can add a few luxuries at your dealer.
If all this makes the Tata Nano sound disappointingly like a real car, it's because that's exactly how it looks and feels. The big question is whether it will drive like a real car; surely this is where its car-ness falters? Seems not. We were taken for a drive in a prototype. Having three Tata engineers aboard was instructive; 33bhp sounds enough to move an unladen 600kg, but less impressive if the car, passengers and luggage total close to a tonne.
The engine note lies somewhere between a putt-putt and a whirr. The four-speed gearbox changes with a clunky action, as we discovered sitting in a driver's seat while stationary; the linkage back to the rear must be awkward. But using it enthusiastically, our driver showed the Nano has more than enough acceleration to cope with city traffic, and enough poke to maintain a decent cruise. Claims of a 65mph top end feel entirely possible. The tall body and narrow track mean it assumes some hilarious roll angles through bends, but even fully laden and pushed hard the front end resists understeer and the car feels stable. It has an easy, loping ride and the body soaked up the worst of some coarse tarmac surfaces and the noise and vibration of the eager but hard-worked motor. This is just a prototype, and we didn't leave Tata's test track, but the car felt tantalisingly good, as if Tata has forgotten to make it a misery to drive.
And it might get even better. Tata is examing more powerful, three-cylinder petrol engines, common-rail and turbocharged diesels, a five-speed gearbox and an automatic. Tata's investments in Norwegian electric-car company Miljo and French firm MDI, inventors of the compressed-air car, mean the Nano is likely to run on both before long. For Europe, it is actively researching how to include airbags, anti-lock brakes, stability control, more side-impact protection and Euro V standard emissions. It will look different, with a wider track and bigger wheels.
And it will certainly cost more. Ah yes, the cost. Building a car for half what was previously thought possible was plainly never going to be easy, and the massive spike in energy and commodity costs during the Nano's gestation must have made it almost impossible. When a car is this cheap, the proportion of its value accounted for by simple raw materials becomes much greater.
Those costs have eased in recent months, but then protests from farmers displaced by Tata's new Nano factory in West Bengal forced it to take the extraordinary step of abandoning the virtually complete facility and starting a new one from scratch in Gujarat. It won't be ready for a year at least; production will start at one of Tata's other plants in the meantime, but five months late and at lower volumes.
So if it does cost the target one lakh, or 100,000 rupees, or €1,500 when it finally goes on sale around March, we'd be surprised. Tata won't commit to it publically, saying only that it remains their aim, and that you'll have to add tax and the dealer's margin. Indian buyers are likely to pay around €2,000 in total. But they'll be glad to, and so would we; you're getting one of the smartest, most significant cars in years.
Factfile
Engine :624cc two-cylinder; 33bhp @ 5,500rpm, 35lb ft@2,500rpm
Specification:Four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Performance :0-100km/h - 17sec, 105km/h, 4.7L/km (60mpg), 100g/km (estd)
Dimensions and weight: 600kg /steel 3100/1300/1600 (mms)
Due: March 2009
Price: €1,500-€2,000 approx
Key facts about the car
• It will easily be the worlds cheapest car when it goes on sale in March
• Some very famous names are supplying parts, including Bosch, ZF and Mahle, who will make the new McLaren supercars engine
• This one new model is expected to expand the Indian car market by 65 per cent
• Fiat is in pole position to help Tata start production in other markets; China, Africa and South America are likely to be first
• Privately, Tata bosses say they could make a million Nanos each year once its introduced in other markets
This article appeared in Motors in December 3rd, 2008.