RIP Tata Nano, the World's Cheapest Car (cnet.com)

From a report: Well, you guys, pour one out for the Tata Nano. The world's cheapest car is all but dead. According to Bloomberg, Tata Motors built one single Nano in June 2018. During the same month in 2017, Tata produced 275. As a final nail in the coffin, Tata told Bloomberg the car "cannot continue beyond 2019." The Tata Nano entered the Indian market in 2008 priced from just 100,000 rupees, or about $1,500. The price increased over time, and according to Tata Motors' website, an entry-level Nano starts at 236,447 rupees today, or $3,435 based on current exchange rates. Right from the get-go, the Nano was plagued with production issues, not to mention poor safety and dismal crash test results. The cars were also known to catch fire, which, uh, isn't good.

Comments

Re:Easy to scoff, harder to respect

[dryriver]

Nano was created to cut down on the huge number of motorcycle deaths in India. It was supposed to be a motorcycle priced car that gives you SOME chance of survival (whereas a motorbike in India gives you pretty much none). Which is precisely why Tata was eventually pressured into shutting down the Nano before it evolves into a cheap AND safe ride a few years down the road. That would have cost dozens of other bigger car makers hundreds of thousands or eventually millions of car sales every year. The fact of the matter is that in the world we live in, trying to create something that is cheap AND usable will often get you into trouble.

Re:So it rolled as many off the line as Tesla

[Rei]

Chevy Bolt production is at 576 per week. Model 3 production is at 5000 per week.

The #1 selling Sedan in the US in Q1 was the (far cheaper) Toyota Camry, at just over 18k vehicles sold per month. Depending on the US/Canada Mix, Model 3 could actually end up being the highest selling sedan of any powertrain and any price bracket in the US. And this ignores the huge numbers of vehicles (over 11k if I remember right) that are in transit, stockpiled in June. Even if there's some downtime (there was a small one around the independence day holiday) or a somewhat lower weekly average output, July figures should still be giving the (vastly cheaper) Camry a run for its money due to that.