What does Nano mean to motoring?

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Tata’s Nano, mobility for the masses or budding environmental disaster? We take a look at the possible impact of India’s Model T.

With a billing as the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, launched this week, is due to significantly alter personal mobility in India – the world’s second most populous country.

Set to retail for less than $2 000, the diminutive Nano, powered by a 26kW, twin-cylinder engine enabling a top speed of only 105km/h, is expected to mobilise India’s bicycle peddling masses - and/or ruin the environment.

Though performance is very leisurely, the kerb weight of only 600kg enables it to yield 4.2l/100km average consumption. On the balance then, this is a force for good - a cheap, efficient car, giving people the option of mobility without suicidal public transport. In practice though, there are monumental issues.

Beyond the political wrangling surrounding the Nano’s production (Tata was involved in a land acquisition scandal for the original production site) the effect of full production capacity at the new Gujarat plant (250 000 units) is fearsome.



Light on fuel locally, heavy on kerosene globally?

Many might consider the environmental alarmists to be badly misconstrued in their logic, after all, the Nano, with a sub-5 l/100 km consumption figure, is efficient.

The issue, though, is that at such a reasonable purchase price Tata will likely sell every one of the 250 000 units it can produce annually at full capacity, and if those cars are mostly licensed in India (which they surely will be) fuel composition becomes a huge issue.

The Indian government has some rather exotic fuel taxing and subsiding policies (like most BRIC nations) and these are not of the environmentally friendly, Brazilian bio-ethanol variety.

New Delhi heavily subsidises kerosene in India, seeing as many of the sub-continent’s citizens still use kerosene as a household fuel.

If the rumoured convertibility of the Nano’s engine to run on kerosene comes to fruition, a potential price spike in jet fuel prices (not to mention the political fallout of a government subsiding fuel for private use) could have nasty logistical repercussions as well as an environmental malaise. In mitigation the Nano only emits 101gm/km of CO2.

Cows, bicycles, buses and Nanos - all living together?

The other major issue concerning the Nano is simply the chaotic nature of India’s road network, and we are not even factoring in the traffic issue here.

As a country which has to absorb nearly 90 000 road accident fatalities a year, the prospect of introducing cars without airbag, side-impact strengthening or ABS and suddenly mobilising nearly a million people within two years is simply courting disaster.

Though Tata says the Nano has a reinforced passenger cell, intrusion resistant doors, crumple zones and tubeless tyres (wow) the fact remains – this car is inconceivable for European homologation since redoubtable safety is not its defining characteristic.



Sanctimonious criticism

Western environmental criticism of the mass mobilising capabilities of the Nano are coming off as a bit rich, considering the low public transport usage in the US compared to its ratio of heavy consuming private vehicles.

With regards to safety and traffic issues, this is something Indian legislators and infrastructure planners have to sort out amongst themselves, and we can hardly blame Tata for pandering to a huge, untapped demand. Or can we?

Hopefully Tata's price pressure will force established manufacturers to add smaller, cheaper models to their line-ups, and if this occurs the Nano, essentially no great design as a car, will have accomplished something quite profound as a pricing signal.