Posted on 06/02/2010 1:09:34 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
SANAND, India (AP) — Tata Motors inaugurated a factory Wednesday to produce its super-cheap compact Nano car, nearly two years after violent farmer protests forced the company to relocate.
The new factory in India's business-friendly Gujarat state promises to unleash production of the pint-sized car, which Tata plans to export to Europe, and eventually the U.S.
Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi together drove the first car — a sunshine yellow Nano — off the assembly line shortly before 1p.m.
"We owe you a great debt of gratitude for having made this happen," Tata said to Modi.
An hour and a half later, a cyclone began blowing large chunks of roofing off at least one of the factory buildings. A ceiling also collapsed. The winds ripped off swathes of celebratory blue bunting and workers huddled in the rain under ruined flags near shattered flower pots.
Spokesman Debasis Ray said to his knowledge only one building was damaged and production would not be affected.
Protests against farm land being converted to industrial use, led by opposition leader Mamata Banerjee, forced Tata Motors to abandon its original factory in the communist-ruled state of West Bengal. Until now, Tata Motors has only been able to make small quantities at an existing factory.
Tata Motors said it would ramp up production in phases at Sanand to 250,000 cars a year, which will be easily expandable to 350,000 cars. Deliveries from the plant will begin this month. Next to the 725-acre plant, housed on former state grazing land, is a 375 acre park where 41 key component vendors are already setting up shop, officials said.
Since its March 2009 launch, just 30,763 Nanos — which sell for just over $2000 in India — have hit the streets.
The Nano was meant to herald a new era of car making, in which even the rising poor could afford to trade dangerous motorbikes for a safe car.
Nano's initial momentum faded after two brand-new Nanos caught fire, raising safety questions.
The company says the incidents were unrelated and revealed no safety design flaws. Tata Motors is adding additional protection to the fuel lines of all existing Nanos as a preventive measure, spokesman Debasis Ray said.
To celebrate the factory, a fleet of Nanos will be driven across 15,000 miles of India by a group of contest winners.
For the most part, locals have welcomed the Nano with open arms, though some complain they haven't gotten jobs.
"Everyone in Sanand would like to keep a photograph of Mamata Banerjee in our home to do puja," said Bahadurbhai Majithiya, editor of the Gujarat Aarsi newspaper, using the Hindi word for a prayer ceremony. "Such a high profile project would never have come here were it not for her agitation. We are eternally grateful to her."
Gujarat has more land devoted to special economic zones than any other state but it is not immune to land protests, which have swept across India as it struggles to change from a nation of small farmers to a fast-growing industrial power.
Modi's government has treated the Nano project with care, scrupulously avoiding conflict.
The government only had to buy a small, 51-acre (20 hectare) privately held stretch from seven locals to build an access road to the factory and industrial park, which were built on land belonging to a government agricultural university.
A local land broker helped negotiate that deal in less than a day. All sold off only part of their land, and stood to benefit from rising land prices once the factory came.
Today, the road to the factory is flanked by fields and grazing buffalo.
The state has all but officially scuttled a plan to acquire land for an industrial zone around the Nano factory after locals protested handing over fertile farmland — which yields two crops a year — to industry, officials said.
Instead, the state is now looking into acquiring 177 square kilometers of less fertile land over nine villages about 10 kilometers from the Nano factory.
Sixty percent of Gujaratis make all or part of their living from the land, and the state is trying to get them a foothold in the rising industrial economy.
The Nano factory employs 2,400 directly, and Tata Motors expects that the factory will eventually lead to the creation of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
B.M. Pareekh, a state education official, said Tata Motors has hired 2,000 graduates of local technical training institutes, and agreed to take on 489 locals as apprentices.
What it replaces in India is a family of five or six on a motor scooter in the monsoon. With that as the alternative, it ain't half bad.
Faster, safer and more efficient than a Model T, BTW.
Sure, for India.
Hell, Mexico could use them too, from some of the insane motorcycle/family action I’ve seen.
Not for America.
I see FAIL in a suspension built for tofu eating Indians being used by a pair of 300lb. Big Mac eating Americans.
I doubt I fit in it at 6’6”. The Honda Civic and BMW mini are also discriminatory against tall people.
Yeah - we’re kind of seeing a repeat of the 50s and 60s with India and China rather than Germany and Japan.
Their ad jingle here in the States:
“I love Tatas, big and small...
I love Tatas, don’t we all?”
all the charm of a Trabant without the pesky 2-cycle oil...
Weight will go up, so will engine size to compensate, new engines will be procured, and price will go up. That’s exactly what happened to the Smart car over here. You can get an 80 mpg diesel elsewhere, over here it’s gas with half the mileage.
I am sure the Liberal Free Trader Globalists, who love anything that is not American, are just wetting themselves over this Tata
Being made by Indians....it will be a cut rate, poor performing car. Of course, if it ever needs servicing.....good luck calling Mumbai for help.
Private industry takes risks, to employ people in good paying jobs, making and selling a product targeted for a growing upwardly mobile market of consumers.
Precisely what should be celebrated, by political conservatives.
(Business planners recognize India and China, for having the biggest potential market for consumer goods. Each has potentially 300,000,000 people coming into a “middle-class” status that want and can afford to buy consumer goods. That is a potential market equal in size to the USA plus Europe, for math majors.)
Who wrote this? George Soros? David Rockefeller? Ban Ki-Moon.
Real conservatives celebrate job creation in the United States of America. If you think this Tata Nano, or any other product coming out of developing Asia is of any quality....you need to move yourself over to that building along the East River in NYC where all the Globalist nutjobs reside.
Most Indians will never afford this car, nor most Communist Chinese
That’s what made Toyota at first - a bunch of liberal kids getting back at daddy by buying a Japanese car.
Toyota was also helped in that it was 1. priced competitively relative to Detroit 2. Good on gas and 3. Didn’t rust after two years like most GM and Chrysler products at the time. That is the REAL reason why Toyota took off in the 1970s.
In 10 yrs India and China will be building cars for the US market that will be very, very competitive.
I remember the same jokes about Hondas and Toyotas in the 70s and Hyundais and Kias in the early 90s.
“Real conservatives celebrate job creation in the United States of America. If you think this Tata Nano, or any other product coming out of developing Asia is of any quality....you need to move yourself over to that building along the East River in NYC where all the Globalist nutjobs reside.”
Yeah, I remember as a kid all of the jokes about Japanese toys.
Driven a Lexus lately?
Watching Hyundai rise to better and better market image?
“Most Indians will never afford this car, nor most Communist Chinese.”
You must have missed the FACT that last year more vehicles were sold in China, than in former number one market—the US.
More Buicks were sold in China than in the US.
Toyota sucked until the very late 70s - rust and fires were quite an issue in the Coronas and Corollas.
In other words, Tata understand their market very, very well. The US regulatory requirements would not allow a car like this, but most of the world doesn't live under those rules, and US car makers should not be content to hide behind those regulations. The big question is, can US car companies who want to have an overseas presence compete with this? If not, they'd better be able to very quickly.
And you'd be surprised. Mr Ratan Tata himself is 6' 3" and 4 people his size could easily fit in the car. The only downside is that you may end up rubbing shoulders with the person on your left/right. It is far more spacious than many premium Japanese cars sold in India.
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