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Nano, Tata’s mini-Waterloo?

The world’s cheapest car caused frenzied interest across India after advance bookings opened. But would the Nano be more a menace than a marvel?

Nano appears a designer beauty. The world’s cheapest car and Mr Ratan Tata’s troubled pet dream sports a generous interior and a slick exterior. But Asia’s most talked about auto could also be a sugar-coated poison pill.

On 9 April, when Nano bookings opened, I tried the back seat of a silver-grey deluxe model at a Tata Motor showroom in Prabhadevi, Mumbai. I was amazed to have five-inches of legroom to spare, and I am over six feet. Others too expressed wonder at the ample inner space.

That’s the good news.

According to estimates, Tata Motors could rake in Rs 7,000 crore from advance bookings. Yet I get a bad feeling about the Nano. Born in January 2008, it has already seen sufficient bad times. It could see more road blocks ahead.

Singur, from where the Nano factory had to relocate following violent agitation, should have been an early warning signal for Tatas whether the project was worth the trouble. But a certain category of mindset rushes in where angels fear to tread. Tatas rushed to Narendra Modi’s arms in Gujarat. The new primary Nano factory is not yet functioning, though Tatas have accepted advance bookings.

Would Tatas deliver the first promised allotment of 100,000 cars in two months? Out of a planned output of 250,000 cars annually, Tata Motors struggles to produce 5,000 cars monthly from its two subsidiary plants in Maharashtra and Uttaranchal. Beneficial projects get support to overcome problems. Unwise undertakings invariably run into endless problems.

The problem is in Nano’s bad timing. The world’s cheapest car may have appeared two decades too late in India. In the 1980s, when the Maruti Suzuki unleashed a mini car-owning revolution in the country, Nano would have snugly and harmoniously fit into urban life. Not now in times when countries with billion-plus populations such as India must look to improve public transport as the better option to cure inner-city travel chaos.

As a compact, fuel-efficient car, Nano may earn a respectful seat among the world’s auto tribe, particularly in North America, Africa, or even in small-town India. But as the world’s cheapest car, it could be a major nuisance for Indian metros, economically vulnerable sections and for Tata Motors.

Mr Ratan Tata said he embarked upon the Nano project after seeing a family of four struggling on a scooter in a rainy night in Mumbai. So he said he made the emotional decision to produce a car such two-wheeler-owning families can afford.

If Mr Tata had been more objective than emotional, he would have seen that owning a car, or a flying saucer, is not the core issue. The issue is developing safe, convenient, economical and fuel-efficient modes of urban transport.

Increasing the car population of already parking-challenged and traffic-trapped cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Chennai helps nobody, least of all middle-class families with limited incomes.

According to a Crisil market survey, Nano could increase car ownership in India by 65%. Economically vulnerable sections could be seduced into car ownership, without being able to cope with subsequent costs of ownership.

The typical example appeared on 9 April itself, at the Concorde Tata Motor showroom I visited. While I was there, Maruti Bhandare, a roadside cobbler, paid Rs 1,40,000 in a cheque as advance amount for the deluxe model of the Nano.

Maruti, ironically carrying the same name as Nano’s biggest competitor Maruti Suzuki, was immediately the star attraction for teeming TV crews covering the Nano booking launch day.

Bhandare said he saved for six years to a motorcycle for Rs 65,000. When he heard about the Nano, he decided to save more and . Bhandare, who says he earns about Rs 7,000 a month repairing footwear and making new , went for the luxury model too.

Bhandare told me he had set aside a Rs 30 daily budget for the Nano car. He also has a wife and two growing children to support. He would use the car to take his family out to the Hanuman temple twice a month, he says. Maybe the taxi would have been a cheaper and better option, if the Bhandare family insists on visiting temples only in a car.

Besides the Nano trapping economically-vulnerably sections into hasty car ownership ~ Maruti Bhandare has no idea what he would do if his prospective car runs up a garage bill ~ traffic is the single biggest worry of nearly everyone commenting on how the Nano could affectIndia.

“Already traffic is a major problem in Mumbai,” says Jayant Jagade, a chauffeur of a Honda Civic who came to see the Nano. “It takes over an hour to negotiate 10 km of traffic in Mumbai. Things are not going to improve with hundreds of thousands of Nanos on the roads.”

Maybe Tata Motors and India would be better off if Mr Tata had expressed his compassion for the rain-drenched family on the scooter by giving them a lift in his Mercedez Benz, or even gifting the family a used car from his billion-dollar wealth.

Even setting out to make the world’s most fuel-efficient car may have helped more people. Instead, the Tatas continue to embark on a Rs 1 lakh car, in an environmentally-conscious era when unnecessary car ownership may earn as much social disapproval as cigarette smoking.

The Nano may give the Tata House more than a lakh worries.

(The writer is a freelance contributor)

vikaskumar11233

Tata Nano sales were surging for quite a while now with the car fetching decent sales figure over the last six months. However, the tables seemed to turn last month where Nano sales figure have dropped below the 10 k mark with the hatchback just managing to clock in 8,028 unit sales. Ergonomically, this is a good 20% drop from the sales number that Nano scored last month. Tata is going to roll out a diesel as well as CNG Bi-fuel Nano variant also the company is going to roll out Nano to next-door countries and eyeing to open up a facility in Indonesia, which is again a key market.
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