The New Nano

TATA, an Indian company, has started taking orders for it's new Nano--the smallest car on the road--and the cheapest. This means that now someone who could only afford a motorcycle can now afford a $2500 enclosed vehicle. There has been concern that the already overloaded roads will be devasted by the new accesibilty of owning a car. And not only will it afford lower income families to own a vehicle but also middle class families to add a second car to their garage (although there aren't too many garages in India:). I only know one family in India with 2 cars and one of them is used to transport employees to their factory. Most families if they have a second vehicle own a motorcycle or moped.

TATA has received over 500,000 pre-orders and at $6 per pre-order they have raked in over $3 million dollars! One article said they expect up to 1 million pre-orders which would bring their profit before sales to $6 million dollars--alot of money! After the pre-order deadline on April 25, TATA will hold a drawing to see who the first 100,000 owners will be in July. Loans for the car can be taken out for 7 years.

We are hoping to go to our nearest TATA dealer and get a picture taken with the new Nano. I don't think Brian could fit inside one so we'll opt for the family picture standing next to it:)

And we'll see how the traffic changes here in the next few months.