By IANS
New York : The most-talked about car in India – Nano – was the toast of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, even though the car is not even there and may not even be sold in the US.
The Nano – the $2,500 car unveiled last week at the auto show in New Delhi – came up in conversations all over the auto show and the big automakers are taking notice, an article in the nationally circulated USA Today daily said.
“Some say the Nano could be a revolutionary car that could change the developing world,” the article read. “Even if it runs on just 7-inch wheels.”
The Nano is compared to Ford’s Model-T and Volkswagen’s Beetle for affordability by the masses.
“Cars like that could be the new Volkswagen,” Ken DeWoskin, a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Detroit office told the paper. “They could have a huge impact on the world.”
“They are going to create a whole new market,” said John Parker, Ford Motor’s vice-president for Asia Pacific and Africa. “It’s a different mindset, a different attitude. They’re going to break through the paradigms.”
Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, said he would not dismiss the car simply because it was cheap and minimalist.
“In the developed world, we think, ‘how would that car do in a crash test?’ But we miss the point that it’s better than being in a crash in a two-wheeler,” he told the paper.
Despite the auto show chatter, the Nano is not likely to be sold in the US where safety and emissions standards would drive up the price, the paper said.
“I don’t think in America there is an appetite for that kind of vehicle,” Parker said. But in India, “if somebody’s offering a vehicle that’s a little more safe, even if it doesn’t meet all of our first-world requirements, it could do well.”
The article pointed out that Nissan and its partner Renault have plans for a $3,000 car, the only full-line manufacturers now aiming for the bottom end of the market. Their car would be for the booming Indian market first and eventually would be considered for the US market.
The New York Times in an editorial Wednesday also took notice of “The Other Nano”.
Alluding to criticism of Tata Nano on grounds that millions of cheap cars on the roads may hurt the environment, the paper cited Ratan Tata’s claim that the Nano meets European emission standards and gets a hybrid-like 50 miles to the gallon.
The editorial then commented, “Given the gas-guzzling behemoths that so many of us in the West feel entitled to, it would seem hypocritical to begrudge people in poor countries an affordable car.”
“Much like the hypocrisy of the dealers who have resisted Tata’s bid for Jaguar on the grounds that Indian ownership would erode the brand’s prestige.”
While admiring Tata’s business and engineering acumen, the premier US daily wished “he would focus his talents elsewhere: creating transportation that is both affordable and doesn’t emit ever more greenhouse gases. That would be something for the whole world to celebrate and buy.”