These are the first pictures of the Tata Nano. On the assembly line, of course. Production is rolling at the Tata Motors Singur plant and the first batch of Nano cars will be ready by September 15 with their market launch in October as originally planned. As you read the engines for the new Nano are built by German engineering company, FEV, who’s working on a 800cc turbo CRDI version, which is going to be the world’s smallest engine with common rail technology. At the same time, another French company, MDI, is working on compressed air technology.

What will happen when Tata Nano goes mainstream? Does anybody think about motorizing the planet and what it means to have more and more car emissions? Dealers are expecting it … no matter what!

HindustanTimes.com

Tata is considering launching the Nano to the global market under the Fiat badge. Reasoning behind this is that Tata and Fiat already work together to distribute commercial trucks outside India and Tata believes the the Fiat badge might have more appeal to potential buyers from the Western market. It will initaially be launched with a 33bhp petrol engine but will eventually be followed by a 800cc twin-cylinder turbodiesel developed in Germany.

India’s Tata Nano will soon be the cheapest (disposable?) car on the market. Suzuki,  not Toyota, not Honda, does the best business of any Japanese car maker, make that any car maker in India.

Suzuki  sells the Splash and Splash VDi Diesel. The Splash will likely replace the R-Wagon and they Hyundai i10. The A-Star will be cheaper than Suzuki’s Swift. The actual price hasn’t been disclosed but the A-Star has been spotted in India.

Suzuki works with another Indian car maker, Maruti, which holds the major market share in India. But…Toyota and Honda are coming.

The Tata Nano will be the cheapest car, to be sure. But, we all know or should know, that you get what you pay for in the end. And, in the end, it’s hard to beat Japanese cars.

With so many people interested in the new Tata Nano (Rs 1-lakh) car, I’ve seen that most of them want to know where can they find a dealer or how to import it in their country. The price is good, car looks pretty much ok, but there are regulations and tests that the Nano won’t pass. Take Europe for example, they have crash tests, where a Nano would be wrecked, so don’t expect it to be imported there any time soon.

If you would like to buy one, just for fun, you should seek a Tata Motors dealership to sell your Nano. I assume the dealer is going to be in India (about 170 dealers countrywide) and you’ll have to pay for the whole shipment.

Do you still want one?

This is an interesting thing and I have to agree the Indian company has done a great job to build a car. It’s called Tata Nano and is supposed to be the “Peoples’ Car”. It was first shown to the public today at the New Delhi Auto Expo and only costs $2,500. Yes American dollars and you’re reading it right.

Though is that cheap it does have a few features that may not reach your taste. It has a 624cc petrol engine which sports 33hp meets the Euro IV standards and achieves 54mpg, has a four-speed manual gearbox, dashboard with a speedometer, fuel gauge and an oil light. It comes in three versions and for the base level it will have no radio, no air conditioning and no power steering. You get air conditioning on upper versions but what an you expect from a 33-hp engine?

Tata Motors said that the Nano managed to pass all the security tests, both frontal and side impact. The car should be available from the second half of 2008 and the Indian company plans to sell 500,000 units.

How will the Tata Nano affect the Indian car industry? What do you guys think?

via Rediff