TATA NANO CAR
Log on to the www.tatapeoplescar.com and design your own Nano. If that’s aimed at generating buzz around ‘one-lakh car’, Tata Motors needn’t bother. The interest in Nano is all pervasive and palpable. And that too without any proactive effort from the compan
y. So, the online initiative must be its first ever salvo to take the brand to the next phase.
y. So, the online initiative must be its first ever salvo to take the brand to the next phase.While Nano has got unprecedented attention and appreciation, it must be congratulated on another front too. The little beauty has suddenly made auto engineering and design a talking point among those with technical bent of mind. This has gone largely unnoticed amidst all the noise around the launch.
The innovation has aroused a great deal interest amongst students in auto design and engineering. The stream, which is usually lower down in the list of preferred disciplines for aspiring engineers in the country, may find many takers now. 
My neighbour’s son tells me that many of his friends are evaluating auto engineering after their class 12th even if that means going overseas. “If our country can be a big force in IT, what stops it from being one in auto engineering and design,” he quizzed me. Auto experts say automobiles has always fascinated youngsters, so a statement like this from my little friend doesn’t seem out of ordinary. It’s just that Nano’s buzz may have inspired its articulation. 
So if some technology institutes decided to showcase their students’ innovation at the 8th Auto Expo last week, including a hybrid car, it didn’t surprise me. This bodes well for indigenous auto-manufacturing, design and technology. While India has made a mark for itself the world over in the IT space, it’s intellectual capital in auto design and engineering is far from discovered. Perhaps, nobody thought we could do that too. Nano may dispel the notion.
For the Tata Motors, the new-found fascination for automobiles will keep the people’s car in the news right through to its launch later this year. That should bring some cheer to brand managers on the Nano.
grand’s journey so far, has a story for marketers who may have a breakthrough launch in the pipeline. And a lesson on how to make a marketing success of a breakthrough product even before its launch. In case of Nano, it may have happened without any conscious effort. Others can plan it. 
When Ratan Tata announced his ambitious project four years ago, it met with scepticism all around. However, along with it came a big bang media attention for the Rs 1 lakh car.
Rival auto companies kept the buzz alive with their respective comments on what the car would be like. “Let’s wait and see what kind of car is it going to be,” a top executive of a rival company quipped. “I suspect it would be a vanilla ‘engine-chassis with a tarpaulin cover’.” I almost believed him then. The curiosity soared as the news spread that people could have a glimpse of the people’s car at the Auto Expo. 
Tata Nano closer to Shankarrao's small car Meera
Ratan Tata’s dream of making a people’s car may have come closer to reality. But for the third generation of the Kulkarni family in Ichalkaranji near Kolhapur, the Nano has revived memories of their late grandfather Shankarrao Kulkarni, who also came close to fulfiling a similar dream fifty years ago. Shankarrao, like Mr Tata, dreamt of making a small car for the masses, which he wanted to make available at Rs 12,000 in 1975. He created the prototype of his small car in 1949 and then went on to create five more improvised models over the next two decades, says Mr Kulkarni’s grandson, Hemant Kulkarni, who currently looks after engineering company Kulco.
he last model, developed in 1970, was a fully working model of his dream mini car and was much smaller than the Nano, says Hemant. “My grandfather had a keen interest in automobiles and had developed the small car which he named Meera,” he said. “This car has many similarities with the Nano, both have a rear engine, single wiper, five-seater capacity, and similar mileage at 18-20 km per litre,” he added. Although Shankarrao studied only till standard 7, he was well-known in Ichalkaranji for his expertise in engineering. “He was working with the Kirloskars under the late Shantanurao Kirloskar and had a team of 10-15 people who worked on different parts of the car.
All components of the car, including the engine were made locally and some parts like the tyres were sourced from the market,” said Hemant. The press components were made in a factory at Bhoglewadi, rubber suspensions were sourced from the Swastik Rubber factory in Pune; Tyres were bought from Ceat, the electric components were from Lucas, while the glass products came from Ogale Glassworks. He had an engineering workshop where the first two-seater model took shape.
It was passed by the RTO and was given the registration number MHK1906. Meera then went through a lot of improvisation over the next twenty years and the sixth model, which was registered as MHE192, was the final model, Hemant explained. Mr Kulkarni had introduced rubber suspension, adjustable ground clearance, three doors and tilting wheels in a four-wheeler, for the first time in India. Work on the small car was started in 1945 and the first model, a two seater, was out in 1949. He made a three seater car in 1951 and started working on the fourth model from 1960. In an interview to a local newspaper, Mr Kulkarni had said that rubber suspension reduces the need for “over 100 spare parts and also ensures that when you cross a stone, the shock is not transferred to the other wheel as is done by the shaft.
Nano drives automobile designers in world market
When Ratan Tata drove Nano at the Auto Expo, the world applauded Indian enterprise. Nano has spurred the present breed of designers to take India to the world through their designs. Pinnen Ferina, Renault, Ford and General Motors among others are looking at Indian designers for their future models. Finally, the world has woken to the paradigm shift in Indian automobile industry, says National Institute of Design’s principal designer (faculty of industrial design) Pradyumna Vyas. “If IT ruled the roost in 1990s, this will be an era of automobile designers. With Indian designers thinking out-of-box and daring to dream beyond the obvious, the good times for the sector has just set in,” he said. Vyas, who worked with Tata Motor’s design team in Pune for ideation on the small car in mid-2000 , even guided three NID students to create concept small cars in 2005. Vyas told ET, “There is more to Nano than miniaturisation, it is a trend-setter and a technological marvel. With automobile industry realising that sheer styling can put their product on the forefront, automobile designers have a plethora of opportunities ahead of them.”
Tata Nano to breed innovation in accessory market
Time was when people were riled by their rides. Public transport in India is no joie de vivre. Time will be when they may get pride in their rides. Tata’s new automotive wonder may not truly be a tall boy but it surely is stirring some tall tales. Walk out on to the main street and you would see several ingenuous, sinuous minds at work doodling out ways and means to adapt the new Nano to suit their needs. The no-frills car, Nano, is the expression of India’s jugaad (manage) mindset on fourwheels. Jugaad, the indigenous motor vehicle used mostly in rural India, would now find plenty of opportunities to manifest itself, and in many ways. Nano buyers can expect the m
arket to be flooded with equally cost-effective ways to accessorise and adorn their first car. But before venturing into that lane, let’s look at the markets that Nano have opened or is likely to uncover. It would bring in a new segment of customers on board and, hence, lead to new business opportunities to cater to them. A taxi driver in Mumbai when asked why he was not changing his car replied by saying that he was waiting for the Nano, even if it takes giga years. “I can install CNG in it and in no time I will cover the lakh I have invested in it.” Where will the CNG fit in? “That can be worked out,” he says with a shrug. “It can come in the boot and the luggage can go onto the roof after some improvisations.” That’s not all. Like Maruti 800 in the eighties, Tata Nano is expected to spawn a new range of auto repair shops and accessories. “There was a euphoria around the Maruti 800 launch, which was manifested in drowning the car in affection with stickers and what not. I don’t think it would be manifested in the same way in case of Nano. It would, however, lead to more opportunities around accessorisation and entertainment for such car users,” said Future Brands chief Santosh Desai. But apart from markets it is at the individual level that the Indian imagination works attentively. The local milkman has already started thinking of holders on the side of the car for his milkcans. The curbside Chinese joint is thinking of turning mobile via the Nano. The laundryman is thinking of collecting dirty linen using the Nano.
arket to be flooded with equally cost-effective ways to accessorise and adorn their first car. But before venturing into that lane, let’s look at the markets that Nano have opened or is likely to uncover. It would bring in a new segment of customers on board and, hence, lead to new business opportunities to cater to them. A taxi driver in Mumbai when asked why he was not changing his car replied by saying that he was waiting for the Nano, even if it takes giga years. “I can install CNG in it and in no time I will cover the lakh I have invested in it.” Where will the CNG fit in? “That can be worked out,” he says with a shrug. “It can come in the boot and the luggage can go onto the roof after some improvisations.” That’s not all. Like Maruti 800 in the eighties, Tata Nano is expected to spawn a new range of auto repair shops and accessories. “There was a euphoria around the Maruti 800 launch, which was manifested in drowning the car in affection with stickers and what not. I don’t think it would be manifested in the same way in case of Nano. It would, however, lead to more opportunities around accessorisation and entertainment for such car users,” said Future Brands chief Santosh Desai. But apart from markets it is at the individual level that the Indian imagination works attentively. The local milkman has already started thinking of holders on the side of the car for his milkcans. The curbside Chinese joint is thinking of turning mobile via the Nano. The laundryman is thinking of collecting dirty linen using the Nano.Nano to cut ownership cost of entry level car by 30%: CRISIL
Tata Motors’ Rs 1 lakh car, Nano, the cheapest car in the world, triggers an important event in the car market. Based on the statements by company officials, CRISIL Research estimates the expected consumer price of the car around Rs 1.3 lakh ($3,000). This brings down the cost of ownership of an entry level car in India by 30 per cent, making a new car affordable to families with income level of Rs 2 lakh ($5,000).
CRISIL Research believes that this launch will prompt product developments in the mini car category by other players in the passenger vehicle segment over the next few years. These launches will attract a section of existing two-wheeler owners (currently nearly 50 million) to upgrade to a car.
CRISIL Research has prepared these estimates by projecting the income demographic transition pattern in India and the cost of ownership of existing and new entry-level cars. Given the shape of the income distribution pyramid in India, the new price point translates into a 65 per cent increase in the number of families that can afford a car. At the significantly redefined threshold for car ownership in India, annual car sales in India have the potential to increase by 20 per cent, over the annual sales expected in 2007-08.
