Okay…so you have already heard about Tata Nano, the new People Car from India, well if you haven’t then its about time. Consider this, Nano is a car yep sexy looking hybrid variation of VW Beetle, Suzuki, Yaaris etc. etc. and wait, it costs only KD 600.000 Yessssirrr US$ 2000 for the base model and US$ 3000 for top end with all options. Now thats a miracle aint it?! Hold on, this car is coming to you from India where population has crossed 1 billion years ago, where this car is as affordable as buying mobile phones in Kuwait. Now if this car is rolled out it all its glory and unleashed upon Indian sub-continent then the roads will be overflowing with cars [Nanos].

If you have ever been to India you would appreciate in all honesty the beauty of traffic chaos with 2 wheelers, rickshaws, and bicycles and animals [yep cows, goats, dogs you name it] on the same road. Now to add to that overburden, these 4 wheel mini-cars would be rolling all over the place, and I guess rolling over each other just like in those funny cartoons. But whats not funny is that India is not ready for the car explosion infrastructure-wise and also fuel supply wise. Surprisingly Nano will be giving its riders 20+ Km/ltr of petrol which would make this car transport of choice. What I fear most is that this car would become an additional vehicle in the middle class of India which already owns atleast one premium car. This additional car would be for the son/daughter going to college, or madam driving down to the markets, or a common car for anyone and everyone in the family at the drop of a hat.

Although I congratulate Tata on this great idea of Nano, but I believe that they should invest a bit more on bringing hybrid fueled technology to Nano. Otherwise the day would be not far away that stressing Indian and Global economical and infrastructre conditions would force the govt to impose heavy duties on every car including Nano to make it less affordable by the masses.

(click for larger pic)

More information [TATA Nano website]