With the unveiling of the much awaited small car from Tata earlier this evening, the Nano has had more hype and attention from the world media than any other Indian carmaker in the past. When Mr. Ratan Tata committed to making a low cost 100,000/- Rupee car, there was much skepticism. Yes, the Nano really will cost you over the benchmark ‘1 Lakh’, but the fact remains that anyone who has been with developing an automobile or a product ground up, which has such high benchmarks to meet, will agree that Tata has done a fairly good job of sticking to it’s promise.

The Nano, earlier known by code names like the ‘Zing’ or ‘Mint’ just became popularly known as the ‘Tata 1 Lakh car’ Early sketches, drawings and various illustrations, do the Nano no justice. It’s an incredibly contemporary looking car with extremely pleasing styling and there is a certain sportiness to it’s overall stance. It’s oval-ish shape with a wheel at each corner, combined with the overall waistline and rear fender slash, makes the Nano look well balanced and clean. Tata’s signature ‘family tail-lamps’ dominate the rear giving the Nano a mini-Indica look and the nose has the centerline which is part of Tata’s new design theme, first seen on the Indica Vista. The large headlamps are a little reminiscent of the Wagon-R but really do add quite a sparkle to the Nano’s nose.

Tata Motors went through many iterations and full scale mock-ups during the design stage of the car. Tata Motor’s had their objectives clearly cut out for them. The car had to be safe, environmentally friendly, a small foot-print on the road and yet have roomy interiors, minimum driver fatigue, comfortable for four tall adults, low cost of purchase and low cost of ownership and low running costs. With such tall orders, the R&D team really did have their task cut out. At various stages of the metamorphosis Tata considered using plastic panels, cloth doors, no doors(!), only a door on each side, but with Mr. Ratan Tata’s personal involvement with the project and his dream of giving the Indian masses a safe, reliable and efficient form of transport (rather than have a family of four on a two-wheeler), the Nano finally now uses a combination of rolled sections and steel panels for the bodyshell. This gives it rigidity and strength and it can even meet the EU crash norms. The only plastics you’ll find on the car’s exterior are the bumpers and some trim bits, and everything else is sheet metal – well finished at that.