Tata Motors moves first $2,500 Nano in Mumbai

We've been following the development of Tata Motors' Nano -- a teeny little car whose main claim to fame is its tiny price tag of about $2,500 -- since way back when it was only an announcement. Well, today the cycle is complete: the first Nano has officially been sold to Mumbai resident Ashok Vichare, who says he bought the car (his first) because it's the smallest and cheapest sold in India. The company held a lottery to decide who could purchase the first 100,000 Nanos, and says its got a waiting list of about a year for further cars.

[corksean14 @ Jul 17th 2009 7:08PM]

Kind of cruel that they held a lottery for it, being the fist one to buy it means being the first one to be killed in a head on collision with a small child on a tricycle moments after getting it off the showroom floor.

[Orinjz @ Jul 17th 2009 7:11PM]

Life, for you, must just be one long string of bleak, soul-crushing moments waiting to happen, eh?

[Makavre @ Jul 17th 2009 7:15PM]

@Orinjz

oh you silly canadian

[Orinjz @ Jul 17th 2009 7:21PM]

Makavre, I'll have you know that I don't like hockey and the top of my head is firmly attached to the bottom half. Canadian...crazy stuff, eh?

[y3k.nik @ Jul 17th 2009 7:28PM]

Nothing like the good ol' Tim's either, eh?

[murmermer @ Jul 17th 2009 7:52PM]

@corksean14

Thats the idea with around 1 billion people in India (noone really knows because they have never performed a census) this is just the perfect example of population control

[crazyburns @ Jul 17th 2009 7:55PM]

@corksean14

Yeah, but the people that will be buying this car are currently riding around with entire families on a single motorcycle. Which is more dangerous?

[Matthew @ Jul 17th 2009 7:56PM]

@corksean

Although I've never been there myself, drivers in India are famous for driving crazy, but not crazy fast. I actually just happen to be reading this book right now: '...the average speed in a Bombay car journey is no more than 12 miles an hour... On Marine Drive, for example, the one road where people can really open up their cars, the average speed declined from a sedate 34 miles per hour in 1962, to 24 in 1979, and to a crawling 15 miles an hour in 1990... One happy effect of this is that the number of traffic accidents in the city has actually decreased...' (Suketu Mehta, 'Maximum City'). Again, haven't been there myself, but coming from New York, Tokyo, and Seoul, I can definitely picture it. I imagine it's very similar to the traffic situation in Mexico City, where drivers are crazy in terms of constantly switching lanes by turning into the slightest inch of free space between cars.

I've railed against the Tata Nano in the past, however, not because of its durability, but because it's TOO cheap. India, especially in Bombay, Calcutta, and other major cities, is incredibly dense in terms of population. Air pollution is a huge, huge problem there, and to put a car in the reach of the average family almost seems irresponsible. Just saying that bothers me, and I'd hate to think that anyone is denied the privilege of car ownership, but seriously... There are just way too many cars on this planet.

[Matthew @ Jul 17th 2009 8:00PM]

I'm an idiot, I forgot to add the most important part of the quotation:
'This confirms something I can see for myself in Bombay: in the mad driving, hardly anybody seems to get hurt. They aren't going fast enough to do serious damage and can brake on a dime.'

[raghu @ Jul 17th 2009 10:51PM]

I agree it isnt the safest of the cars but it isnt that bad either.. see this recent article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/5843705/Tata-Nano-safety-boost.html

[derrik @ Jul 17th 2009 10:46PM]

bring that car up here so our hummers and suvs can run it over! fuck them stupid little cars

[synn @ Jul 18th 2009 1:11AM]

"Kind of cruel that they held a lottery for it, being the fist one to buy it means being the first one to be killed in a head on collision with a small child on a tricycle moments after getting it off the showroom floor."

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/14/report-tata-nano-passes-european-crash-testing/

You may now proceed to remove the foot from your mouth.

[Mihir @ Jul 18th 2009 2:59AM]

The lottery system was brought in because they has issues where they had set up their farm.

"Singur gained international media attention since Tata Motors started constructing a factory to manufacture their $2,500 car, the Tata Nano at Singur. The small car was scheduled to roll out of the factory by 2008. [3] The choice of Singur was made by the company among six sites offered by the state government. The project faced massive opposition from 2,000 of the 12,000 displaced farmers. The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's firebrand opposition leader Miss Mamata Bannerjee with an eye to the upcoming Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) elections. Miss Bannerjee's "Save Farmland" movement was supported by celebrity environmental activists like Medha Patkar, Anuradha Talwar and Arundhuti Roy. Miss Bannerjee's movement against industrialization of Singur was also supported by several Kolkata based intellectuals like Aparna Sen, Kaushik Sen, Shaonli Mitra and Suvaprasanna. Ultra left activists also shared the platform with Miss Bannerjee's Trinamool Party. The Tatas finally decided to move out of Singur on 3 October, 2008. Mr Ratan Tata blamed violence by Miss Mamata Bannerjee and her supporters for the pullout decision. The pullout decision meant, loss of huge investment for the state of West Bengal. On 7 October 2008, the Tatas announced that they would be setting up the Tata Nano plant in Sanand, Gujarat." - Wiki

[mtotho @ Jul 18th 2009 9:59AM]

ha. This is exactly the kind of mindset most americans have (not saying you are an american. I am). They see a small car like the smart car or some other fuel efficient or economic car, and they immediately say they are not safe... Yet the reason they are not safe is because there are so many idiotic people who think they need a freakin TANK (SUV) to be safe. Those people continue on to be idiotic drivers who crash into people.. now if you had a teenie weenie little car, you would likely get destroyed by this said tank.. but if everyone was driving around nanos, I think you'll be fine. And like someone pointed out, the Nano, and most of these little cars for that matter, are not unsafe, they just have the Image of being unsafe from the Ford/GM/ and even ToyotaUSA advertising camp.

[SmartSid @ Jul 18th 2009 10:14AM]

You knowledge of the ground realities in the market where the Nano is being sold is as appalling as is your knowledge of the car's construction.

It's strange that instead of accolading an engineering wonder that puts safer transport (when compared to the current mode of transporting people on motorbikes) within the reach of millions who also aspire for 'your' lifestyle, idiots like you are busy running it down.

Bender is correct. Just because its parts are glued, its not unsafe or unstable. Glue-tech has come a long way. Mercedes and BMW use it all the time - my Merc doesn't have a single screw in its door. How do you think they managed to keep all those three sheets of metal that comprise the door hold together? Glue is essential to modern automobile design, and in this case it is being applied also to reduce costs.

I think this is a positive breaking change for the automobile industy - that till date was inefficient, expensive (due to lack of good design and processes) and lacklustre.

[desinerd @ Jul 18th 2009 11:43AM]

@Matthew

This is just like Gas being too cheap in US. People go on road trips, don't use public transport as much, hardly use trains.

I am surprised to see how few households here use use fluorescent lights (CFLs etc) as compared to India.

There... feel less frustrated now

[G @ Jul 18th 2009 2:44PM]

@synn: i think that's the specially adapted european version which will cost over 5000€

[synn @ Jul 18th 2009 3:41PM]

@G: Actually, no.

They did the crash test on the India-specific model with minor mods. The European model is yet to be mass produced. Needless to say, it's made to higher standards.

[Moshe @ Jul 17th 2009 7:09PM]

can they start selling here?

[murmermer @ Jul 17th 2009 7:53PM]

do you think Obama would let a vehicle that produces CO2 to be sold here for under $3000? by the time you get it off the lot it would be cheaper to dump the old Tata and buy a new one that it would to replace the transmission-- besides how would Government Motors compete with this?

[Chris @ Jul 17th 2009 8:20PM]

No Airbags
No Power anything
624 CC motor, that's 0.6L
43 MPH top speed
Plastic and Steel
Glue not welding is the preferred method of construction.

If you were hit in this by any can on the road in the US you would be killed.

[Richard @ Jul 17th 2009 8:28PM]

I recall reading while back that if they sold it in Europe it would have to be considerably more expensive to meet CO2 emissions standards and safety standards. Despite that it seems they're going ahead with a Euro release since a European spec version just passed safety tests:

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/15072009/36/tata-nano-safe-uk-roads-0.html

There's no mention of the price but if they could sell it for £3K or under it would be great. However, when something like the Toyota IQ is £10K I really can't see this selling for less than £5K. If it's £5K or above I'd rather have a decent second hand car for the same price.

[Peter R. @ Jul 17th 2009 10:44PM]

I'd rather they not sell them here (if possible, anywhere else for that matter), it's way too cheap. How safe can a car made with less than $2500 worth of materials be!? If you drove it in New York (or anyway else in the U.S.) it's like saying "please crash into me." Sure getting things on the cheap is good, but when it comes to certain objects, you have to come to a point that if it's too cheap you realize it's defective, unsafe, or has a nefarious catch behind said price. There's no way a car at that price is environmentally-friendly, and at THAT PRICE it just makes it non-environmentally-friendliness all the more harmful. When everyman and his dog has a car like that, then what!? I'll tell you what: global warming and air pollution is gonna kick our asses that much harder. It should be almost a crime to release something like this to third-world countries. I'm don't support denying someone the right to own a vehicle, but those countries already have deep problems with air pollution. To make a car so cheap that it's practically available to every pedestrian in India, is criminal, the air pollution would skyrocket worst than it is already (air pollution is already one of India's strongest problems). Then when half of the millions of former-pedestrians start driving gas emission vehicles, global warming comes in and everybody feels the hurt. Cars should only get this cheap when:
1. Lower price doesn't affect quality/safety of construction
and
2. When the vehicle in question is fully electrical or an efficient hybrid.

Until then, I wish they would keep this nonsense off our streets.

[murmermer @ Jul 17th 2009 11:21PM]

@ Peter

I consider myself EXTREMELY conservative- so i don't understand how can say if people drove this around in New York it would be dangerous to drive- like you said EVERYONE would buy one so 2 lane roads could become 3 lane roads allowing more people to drive on the same size street, parking would be easier since more cars can fit in a smaller space.

There is NO PROOF of global warming that is why they call it "Climate Change" and it is convenient that it's OK to force electric cars down our throats but have no massive way to recycle all the batteries, so you are causing more problems to the environment than you are solving

so your point is what again peter?

[bender @ Jul 17th 2009 11:50PM]

@ chris

glue was used at bmw munich factory to put together my bmw 3 series.

[corksean14 @ Jul 17th 2009 7:09PM]

*first one to buy it^

[Jeremy @ Jul 17th 2009 7:17PM]

PRetty sure it won't meet emissions, dot, customs and whatever else is required to drive in the U.S. Making it U.S. certified would probably double the price at least.

The interesting thing is that if it gets in a moderate accident it's probably cheaper to buy a brand new one then repair. hahaha

[garrenteed @ Jul 17th 2009 7:23PM]

invest?!

[To: Hell @ Jul 17th 2009 7:25PM]

(colour keyed "bumpers" cost extra)

[y3k.nik @ Jul 17th 2009 7:31PM]

The temporary number on that car is from Delhi, not Mumbai... are you sure that the first car wasnt in Delhi?

[Chris @ Jul 17th 2009 7:35PM]

Holy crap. That costs less than my MacBook Pro... sigh... I'd rather have the car.

[sintricate @ Jul 17th 2009 9:12PM]

Holy crap, you paid over $2500 for a mac laptop... or a laptop in general?

[Alistair loveless @ Jul 17th 2009 8:03PM]

The price of hype is steep.

[murmermer @ Jul 17th 2009 8:16PM]

You get what you pay for, ask Tata

[Jeremy @ Jul 18th 2009 2:43AM]

There's more metal in your macbook pro. ;-)

[jchurch @ Jul 17th 2009 7:41PM]

for the love of tandoori! I wish I could get my mits on one of those...maybe two? :)

[abib @ Jul 17th 2009 7:46PM]

why don't they just buy used cars from respectable automative companies? Even 15 years old toyotas are reliable than this piece of machinery.

[F. C. @ Jul 17th 2009 8:24PM]

And you've actually seen reliability figures for the Nano?

[murmermer @ Jul 18th 2009 9:26AM]

... Toyota had more recalls last year than sales

[sitruc @ Jul 17th 2009 7:53PM]

What's special about this car that it gets a post on engadget? Yes, that's a serious question.

[Alistair loveless @ Jul 17th 2009 8:03PM]

$2500

And cheaper than a macbook.

And the fact that it actually Happened instead of announced.

[Matthew @ Jul 17th 2009 8:05PM]

Price. The low cost of production and the low costs to the consumers makes it hugely attractive to a country with over a billion people. It's caused controversy over the speculated quality of the build (people are skeptical that a safe car can be built so cheaply), and, more importantly, it potentially puts cars in the hands of millions of people who heretofore could not afford one, which in turns puts millions of new drivers on the already insufferably congested roads. Air and noise pollution is already at near-debilitating levels in Bombay, and adding that many more drivers makes a bad situation worse.

[something clever @ Jul 17th 2009 9:11PM]

Possible answers:

1. They're desperate for content
2. Someone doesn't get that a new, cheap car that won't be for sale in most of their target market (USA, Canada, Europe) belongs on a car blog, not a tech blog
3. Somewhere along the line, someone is passing money to someone else to get this PR item out to the world.

Lately engadget seems to be in a race with gizmodo to see which one can suck more. I need another tech site that concentrates on tech news, not whatever crap their lame 'writers' think they can post to make themselves look cool.

[Alistair loveless @ Jul 17th 2009 11:27PM]

ouch.


but its funny you mention the whole "passing money along" i don't believe that engadget would be doing this (don't let me down) there has been a growing number of states that want companies to say WHO they are giving promo products to (as in bloggers and reviewers) to see if it is just propaganda coverage, not news but an ad.

[CaliforniaKid @ Jul 17th 2009 8:16PM]

Why on Engadget? Because AT $2,500 it's priced like a gadget!

[turtlesoup @ Jul 17th 2009 8:16PM]

You couldn't have found a more unflattering picture if you tried. Once again we see Engadget's Apple bias. They can't stand the thought of any other Nano taking the spotlight off the Ipod Nano.

[10minutehobo @ Jul 18th 2009 7:40AM]

So true...and so sad.

[Sam @ Jul 18th 2009 8:20AM]

That car is ugly enough that this is the most flattering picture.

[m_chan1 @ Jul 17th 2009 8:20PM]

Tata cars are so cheaply made not just due to low labor costs but what's missing from the auto!

No a/c, power steering, ABS, air cushions, radio, air pollution equipment, etc...

Anything else missing?!

[Maytag @ Jul 17th 2009 8:30PM]

iPod interface.

(This is Engadget, after all)