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

Easy to scoff, harder to respect

[rh2600]

It's easy to scoff at a cheap car that cut obvious corners and was far behind what we expect for first-world motor vehicle transport that costs an order of magnitude above what millions of people in developing nations can affort...

It takes some mental effort to respect that fact that Tata brought car-based mobility to a new generation of people that otherwise couldn't afford the level of vehicles we enjoy in more developed nations today... it wasn't too long ago (~50 years) that we were driving cars worse in quality and safety than the Nano... and they cost a pretty penny even for first world nations at the time...so why begrudge and scoff at another developing nation's progress on the same path we also walked (albeit earlier)?

So Big Industry Shut A Small, Cheap Car Down?

[dryriver]

The Tata Nano was supposed to cut motorcycle accident deaths in India, not compete with BMWs or Audis. In India, quite often multiple poor people will ride on a motorcycle together, sometimes mommy, daddy and three kids, and then die in a horrific way when there is a collision with a car or a roadside barrier. So Tata tried to create a very cheap car to replace those deadly motorcycles. This was about cutting motoring deaths, not creating the next big thing in motoring. In my opinion Nano didn't die at all because of poor sales numbers. The family that owns Tata motors simply got threatened by bigger car manufacturers into killing their sub 4K automobile before it can evolve into a cheap AND relatively safe ride. The big motor companies wouldn't threaten Tata you say? Really? The people who cheated on everything from safety standards to Diesel emissions wouldn't threaten an Indian conglomerate that has nobody protecting it? And where is the rest of the automobile industry's answer to the Tata Nano? There's dozens of poor countries that are pretty much "motorbike death city". The people who can built Peugeots, Seats, VolksWagens and Skoda's can't make a cheap car for these countries? (Hint: They can, but they simply won't. Too risky for their higher priced cars' future sales.)