Tata Nano 800 cc variant at a price of Rs 240,000 in the making?

In January this year, Tata Motors Chairman, Mr Ratan Tata said that they would like to resurrect the image of world’s cheapest car – Nano. According to Autocar India, a new 800cc 3 cylinder engine powered Nano will be launched soon. This sportier and more powerful variant will take the humble Nano to greater heights thus competing with the likes of Hyundai Eon and Maruti Alto.

Nano’s more powerful variant is under development process and is set to attract a higher category of customers as the price will be in the range of Rs.2.4 lakhs (ex-showroom New Delhi). This new variant will take about a year to develop but will increase sales of the current 624cc Nano, which on date averages around 7,500 units per month and priced at Rs. 1.4 lakhs to Rs.2 lakhs.

Apart from this, Tata is also working towards launching a Nano diesel variant, details about which are still under wraps. New diesel engine for Tata Nano will be a technological breakthrough due to its compact size and is being developed by Tata Motors along with Bosch in India. Such a highly efficient diesel engine will definitely perk up sales for Tata Nano which has not been encouraging in recent months.

An official close to the development said, “It will be the smallest twin-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine in the world. This turbocharger is the first such product developed by our Bangalore technical centre from scratch. We work with all automakers, but till now we were adapting products from other markets for India.”