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India,
Tata
Tata's much ballyhooed
Nano isn't exactly selling as expected in its home market of India, especially after the well-publicized
fires engulfing the several examples of the world's cheapest car. Despite that, the head of Tata Group,
Ratan Tata, says his company remains intent on bringing an updated sub-$10,000 Nano to the States, and he intends to do so in three years.
While the Indian market gets a bare-bones Nano powered by a two-cylinder, 37-horsepower engine, Tata unsurprisingly says the US version will have a larger engine, power steering and traction control.
"The
Smart and the
Fiat 500 have high sticker prices, and people buy them because they are small cars," Tata tells
Automotive News. "But everyone knows you put a lot of money into it. We hope that the sub-$10,000 car has appeal."
With the US economy still slowly recovering, a car for under $10k could have plenty of appeal. But the Indian automaker has several obstacles to overcome first, not the least of which is building a dealer network for the Nano. Tata owns
Jaguar and
Land Rover, but that group's CEO, Andy Goss, says there has been no discussion about using those dealers to distribute the Nano.
Perhaps the updated US-bound Nano will be more like the
Nano Megapixel concept (pictured above) we saw at the
Geneva Motor Show back in March. That car had a longer, 138-inch wheelbase and a larger 325cc engine supplemented by two electric motors. It's safe to assume that if Tata wants to keep costs down so that it can offer the car below $10,000, the next Nano won't get a hybrid powertrain like the Megapixel, but perhaps it will pick up some of the car's size and styling cues.
Redesigned Tata Nano to arrive in U.S. wearing price tag under $10k originally appeared on
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Report: Redesigned Tata Nano to arrive in U.S. wearing price tag under $10k
