Posted on 01/06/2010 9:31:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, is coming to Detroit and will be on display for the US audience for the first time next week.
Tata Technologies, part of the Tata Group, would put Nano for display on January 14 during a press meet at the Detroit Science Center, where Tata's rivals would display their latest cars at the Detroit auto show. With regional headquarters in Michigan near Chicago, Tata Technologies would "show the car to highlight its end-to-end vehicle engineering and design capabilities to its auto industry customers".
"The innovative thinking that brought the Tata Nano to market is symbolic of what Tata Technologies has to offer the automotive industry," Tata Technologies' President and COO Warren Harris said.
The announcement came just a day after Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata said at the ongoing Auto Expo in New Delhi that the company will consider launching Nano in the US in the next three years.
He had said there was a market for the Nano not only in developing countries but also in developed countries.
Nano was introduced at the Delhi Auto Show in January 2009 and retails for about $2,500 (Rs one lakh) in India.
Done told y’all it looked like that Cyclops cartoon, lol.
At $2,500, I imagine there would be a market -- students and young people, as well as second car buyers looking for a strictly commuter car or an easy to park urban runabout. There are a lot of places where tiny is better, and if you're mostly chauffering kids, tiny doesn't make much difference in a second car.
Of course, if a U.S. automaker bought the rights, by the time the UAW gets done it will be a $15,000 car, and the automaker will still be losing money on it.
Good Lord, I’d hate to get caught in the slipstream of a passing Semi-Truck in one of those things! Probably be sucked under the trailer and squashed. Oh well, to each his own...
They are city cars - nobody sane will drive them on an American freeway, but in San Francisco or Boston where parking is minimal and spaces are tiny they could be a big hit.
Is the Nano actually highway rated for the US? I think its top speed is like 45mph...
Do they have a mini-van in the works? They can call it the Gazonga
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