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It’s here, the world’s cheapest car. At only R17,000 you can now own your own set of wheels. Tata, the Indian automotive company has launched it’s new offering on the market known as the Nano. The question however, is how the company is able to make profit by releasing such a cheap vehicle?? How did they manage to reduce costs so that more people can own their own car? What we do know is that, the car does not have the luxuries of other, more expensive cars, such as air conditioning and electric windows, but has the car manufacturer sacrificed safety standards to break-even on their bottom line?

Tata predicts that it will sell up to 1 million cars in it’s first month, which means more cars on the road…and with traffic being as congested as it is already (it takes 45min to get across town), then I wonder what exactly our roads will look like when the Nano officially launches in South Africa in June.

If you’re wondering what’s happening under the hood, this is an excerpt taken from the official press release :

“the People’s Car has a rear-wheel drive, all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 623 cc, 33 PS, multi point fuel injection petrol engine. This is the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft. The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system. “

That isn’t much power if compared to other makes and models currently on our roads, so it should curb speeding…. :S

Other than that, the benefit of this vehicle is that it’s accessible to everyone…