Tata Motors (Tata) is getting a lot of western media coverage these days - thanks, in part, to their bid to acquire the Jaguar-Land Rover combine. So, when it displayed its 'Nano' to the world yesterday, it would have been inevitable for those media to ignore. Here's a company that wants to be at the either end of the spectrum - to produce cologne and eau de parfum (in the words of the former Arcelor chief Guy Dolle). When Tata had announced some five years ago that it would pursue making a car that would cost about 100,000 rupees, hardly anybody outside India noticed. Now, every gesture gets reported.
The Nano (the 'one lakh' car then) had sent shock waves to its competitors even before the launch with top rival executives questioning the safety aspects of the car, among other issues. Now that more details about the car are available (it passes Euro - III norms currently in place in India), it has silenced the critics for the time being.
Tata has done very well to keep almost every detail about the car - top secret. Right from the design to the features. No body had a clue as to how it would look like. They have done a nice job there. They now face a bigger challenge - to meet the desired expectations. Remember, Tata Indica was also launched with similar fanfare and expectations. But, once people got deliveries of that car in its initial days, they were totally disappointed. Tata did some modifications, and the later versions, as we know, were accepted well. But the damage was done to the brand. Of course, it was Tata's first foray into passenger car (if you don't count Tata Sierra and Tata Estate as cars, as they were essentially built on the likes of the current 207 pick-up truck platform, not a totally different base. Let's just hope that the Tatas have learnt from those mistakes, and the Nano does well when commercially launched. Congratulations! Tata Motors and the House of Tatas. And all the very best!!!
