Tata's Nano capacity may be increased to 500,000 vehicles

The production capacity of the Rs 1 lakh car Nano by Tata Motors at Singur may be ramped up to five lakhs per annum in three years, if vendors planning to supply components, are to be believed.

"Tatas plan to increase production capacity of Nano at Singur to five lakh vehicles in three years and we are ready to cope with demand for components," claimed Sandipan Chakravorrty, Managing Director of Tata Ryerson, which is one of the key component suppliers for the Nano.

Tata Motors has announced a first phase production capacity at 250,000 per annum for Nano, which could be expanded further. The small car is to roll out in the third quarter of the next fiscal.

Tata Ryerson, a 50:50 JV between Tata Steel and Ryerson Inc, will supply the load bearing member (chassis for the car) and 16 non-load bearing components.

Chakravorrty said the components, which would use a technology which would be the first in Asia, were tested in international laboratories.

CNG Nano?

What better way to get the biggest bang for your buck than a CNG Nano (the petrol Nano promises 20 km per litre).

Though Tatas are not telling whether they are on the road to a CNG Nano, a top Tata official said: "We will first roll out the petrol Nano. We will work on other fuel options as well."

With CNG kit makers like Shrimankar Fuel Technologies Ltd promising to run bikes and scooters on small CNG tanks which can accommodate 1kg of gas, why can't the Nano?

Currently, M-800 fits in a 60-litre water capacity tank that packs in 10-11 kg of CNG.

"Though we have not figured the space Nano has, we can design a special kit," says Shrimankar who feels CNG will make the Nano sweeter by slashing running costs by over half to around 0.85 paise per km as against Rs 2.38 per km on petrol (Ahmedabad's fuel rates).

Primary focus - two wheelers

The family two-wheeler, which is in the range of 75-125cc, costs Rs 35,000-50,000. This segment accounts for 92% of the two-wheeler market in India in terms of sales. With the launch of Nano (supposed to cost Rs 100,000 + taxes), the spillover will happen from this two-wheeler market to Nano.

Delphi Experience on Tata Nano - Keeping instrumentation simple

Speaking about the company’s experience with cost control for the Rs 1-lakh car, Mr Ashok B. Ramaswamy, President and Managing Director, Delphi India, said that there was a considerable amount of lateral thinking that the Indian development team had to do to come up with ideas for crashing the cost structure.

So, the instrument cluster was kept basic with just a speedometer, odometer and turn indicator signals being featured. The other ways by which Delphi cut costs for the component supplied was by eliminating screws and replacing them simply with panels and parts that just snap on firmly.

Also the clear plastic panel that covers the display was curved at an angle to eliminate reflections and glare, a simple solution compared to the usual anti-glare coatings and so on.

Mr Ramaswamy felt that Tata Motors choose Delphi’s solution because of its expertise in systems integration capabilities.

He also mentioned that while the company’s US-based product development teams are used to working on feature-rich, content-rich products, the Indian product teams are more focused on cutting costs.

This was a big reason why, though the Indian team is also used to developing global products, it was also able to think innovatively to develop low-cost technology solutions such as the Nano instruments and the engine management systems for fuel-injected two-wheeler engines.

How Tata Nano stacks up Vs other historic low cost cars

Ratan Tata on Assembly of the car

"The first thing I would like to do is get a mature product in the Indian market and seed this market effectively. My aim was that I would produce a certain volume of cars and create a very low cost, very low break-even-point plant that a young entrepreneur could buy. A bunch of entrepreneurs could establish an assembly operation and Tata Motors would train their people, would oversee their quality assurance and they would become satellite assembly operations for us. So we would create entrepreneurs across the country that would produce the car. We would produce the mass items and ship it to them as kits. That is my idea of dispersing wealth. The service person would be like an insurance agent who would be trained, have a cellphone and scooter and would be assigned to a set of customers. This is just a concept. He will deal with their problems on a self employed basis and would be paid by the assembler and the customer.

It would be satisfying if the small car created 10-15 satellite groups of young engineers who could get together and do a business. They would never be able to get normally into assembly of cars. I think it will be a very satisfying thing for me to see them succeed.

What we will do outside India will be a conventional distribution system. Find an assembly plant and assemble the product in the conventional form."
(excerpts from Mr. Ratan Tata interview in ToI)

10% of two-wheeler market?

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Anand Rathi - Automobile & Transportation, said that almost 10% of the two-wheeler market may shift to Tata’s new Rs 1 lakh car. He said, “ The car is priced at Rs 1 lakh and one look at the dealer margin and if we add the VAT the registration charge, the base model could workout to be Rs 1,30,000 lakh on road.With a Rs 30,000 down payment, you can take a loan of around Rs 1 lakh and EMI works out to be around Rs 3,716 per month. With just Rs 3,700 per month on an EMI, I believe anybody can afford this product. As far as the shift is concerned, initial estimates is around 10% of the two-wheeler market can actually shift towards the small car.”

Nano explained

(from NY Times - Take it with a grain of salt!)

Tata Nano - Interior

Minimalistic! But its meant to be that way!

Nano Unveiled

These are the first shots of the world's cheapest car called Nano. It is non-polluting; it is safe; it has an AC and it looks good!

Tata Nano Specifications

Dimensions: 3.1 metres (10.23 feet) long, 1.5 metres wide and 1.6 metres high. Can seat four to five people.

Engine: A two cylinder 623 cc, 33 horsepower rear mounted, all aluminium, multi-point fuel injection petrol engine can power the car to top speeds of 105 kilometres per hour (65 miles per hour).

Fuel Efficiency: 20 kilometres per litre, or 50 miles per gallon is claimed.

Pollution: Exceeds Indian regulatory requirements and can meet strict Euro IV emission standards. In terms of overall pollutants, Tata says the car is better than two-wheelers manufactured in India currently.

Safety: Car exceeds current regulatory requirements with a strong passenger compartment, crumple zones, intrusion resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorage.

Initial Annual Production Target: 250,000 units to rise later to 350,000. PRICE: Basic model price 100,000 rupees (2,500 dollars) plus tax and transport costs, which will bring on the road price to at least 120,000 rupees. The price of two deluxe models that will include air-conditioning and other features to be announced later.

Nearest Domestic Car Rival: Maruti 800, part of Japanese-owned Suzuki Maruti stable whose base model sells for about 4,800 dollars -- nearly double the price of the Nano.

Nearest International Rival: China's Chery QQ which retails for 3,600 dollars.

Sales: Tata will focus on selling the car in India for the next two to three years, before eyeing Latin American and Southeast Asian markets.

Market: India's car market is a huge draw because car penetration is just seven per 1,000 people, compared to 550 per 1,000 in such countries as Germany or 476 in France, according to the Society of Indian Automobiles.

Company Details: Tata Motors is India's largest vehicle company with revenues of 7.2 billion dollars in 2006-2007. It is the leader in commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses, and the second largest in passenger vehicles. There are over four million Tata vehicles on Indian roads.
(source : Times of india)