India's Tata presents "Nano", the world's cheapest car

New Delhi, 10 Jan 2008. - The Indian company Tata today unveiled the world's cheapest car, which, at a cost of only 100,000 rupees ($ 2,500), aims to revolutionize the commercial sector in emerging markets.
Dubbed "Nano", the "people's car" Indian is a four-door with 30 horsepower and a consumption of 5 liters per hundred kilometers, which raises and comparisons with historical utility, as the Volkswagen "Beetle" and will be marketed within months.
"This car is designed to give the masses a means of transport. This country has 1,000 million people and most do not have portability. We had to give the middle, "he said during the presentation, the company chairman Ratan Tata.
The businessman emerged from a dark area on stage at the Ninth Auto Show New Delhi, where, accompanied by three "Nano"-one red, one silver and one yellow-stated that his development was not easy because the increased project costs with time.
"But a promise is a promise," he said, referring to the 100,000 rupees (or 1 lakh, as they say in India) will cost "Nano", apart from transport costs and taxes.
The "Nano", which will have air conditioning in its 'deluxe', is 8 percent smaller but has 21 percent more interior space than its nearest competitor in India, the Maruti 800, priced at 1.9 lakh.
But competition has not waited for today's presentation to make a move: just two days ago, the company Bajaj Auto filed its response to the model of Tata, a small, low utility consumption, however, cost more than the "Nano ".
"My skepticism about the Tata car is not whether Tata will be able to do, but if he can do it for that price. It is fair to say that a lakh is the factory price. Yet I have heard that will be profitable, "said then the company president, Rajiv Bajaj.
Today, Ratan Tata picked up the glove, unveiled the "Nano" will be profitable in all its versions and asked to talk to competitors in the market, where "the best wins."
The small utility-known until now as "one lakh car" - is named after its "tail" and "high tech" as Tata, who noted that meets all safety standards and complies with Euro emission to ecological IV.
"We have met the required emission standards, with the costs that this entails. You can not have everything in a car of 100,000 rupees. Take it as it is, serves to transport in a safe and compliant, "Tata said at the press conference afterwards.
Tata recalled, with no less than two hundred journalists, that the name "one lakh car" comes only from the press, but that his company decided to keep the cost of the car at 100,000 rupees as a "challenge".
After three years, Tata wants to introduce the "Nano" in the markets of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, but will initially focus on India, where hundreds of millions of people can now at least, the thought of buying a car .
"There is a car designed for the city or countryside. The 'Nano' will be available to all. My hope is to change the mode of transport especially in rural areas that are not well connected, "said Tata, accompanied by the staff of the group.
The businessman left the stage and press room next to his bodyguards, while the first three "Nano" were subjected to a barrage of cameras, "flashes" and onlookers ready to play, sparing no pushing, pioneers most anticipated car in India .
"It's very spacious," "will sell like hot buns" was heard among the crowd, eager for up to touch the car, while a small delegation from Tata critics trying to "boycott" the event and the Singur plant ( east) came to the burning of a replica of the "Nano".
The "Nano" car of Bajaj or Maruti want to give shape to an emerging "Indian dream" in a society that has combined in recent years increased purchasing power with the existence of hundreds of millions of people still without access to all four wheels.
Tata today reminded himself that his idea of a Rs 100,000 car from a typical image in the crowded Indian roads: the whole family traveling precariously balanced on a moped.
"We complied with everything he concluded the employer. If the consumer does not like a car, do not buy it for a lakh or by 1.5 lakhs. So now let them decide. "