design odyssey beyond 2010

[by Joe Johnson] While the design of little Tata Nano doesn’t measure up with the swoopy curves of a Ferrari designed by Pininfarina, or the staid elegance of a Rolls Royce Phantom, it is its price that makes it a winner.  The Tata Nano costs about as much to purchase new as a tune-up for either example. How good is it, however, for a car that costs so little?

The Tata Nano is currently being sold in its home country, India, and other developing markets and is set to debut in Western markets in the next couple years.  Much has been written about the car not because it is a technological marvel to rival the world’s great automobiles, but rather because it is cheap.  Exceedingly cheap, costing as little as $2500 in a time when the average American car costs around $27,000, the Nano is just 10% of the price the average American pays for a new car.

What does that average American car price buy?  Typically a well-appointed family sedan, such as a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, both among the top selling models in America. Not coincidentally.  At just one-tenth the price, the tiny Nano has the same four wheels, an engine, and room for five adults inside, as well as the capacity to carry a modest amount of cargo.  Previous attempts at making inexpensive cars for developing markets had settled for something less; less than four wheels (typically three), a weak, obtrusive engine, and very little interior space or carrying capacity. This is precisely what is revolutionary about the Nano: for very little money you get a real car.

NANO AND OTHER MICRO CARS

Mini / photo: www.aronline.co.uk

Citroen 2CV/courtesy of www.carbodydesign.com

Many have likened the revolutionary Nano to famous micro cars from the past, including the Fiat 500, Citroen 2CV, and even Britain’s famous Mini.  However, there are important differences.  These were largely post-World War II cars built to revitalize once strong automotive industries and extend car ownership to the working class and rural populations.  The more apt comparison for the Nano is the Ford Model T, a car that made motoring an option for the masses in a no frills, yet conventional for the time package in a growing industrial nation.

19212 Ford Model T / courtesy www.carbodydesign.com

Near the end of its long production and development run in the 1920s, the Model T sold for $290, or roughly $3000 in today’s dollars, and not far from the likely price of the Nano when and if it hits the U.S. market.  However, American workers are significantly wealthier today than in Henry Ford’s era.  Ford famously boasted that his workers could purchase the car for just 3 months of their wages.  In comparison, today the same 12 weeks of wages of the average American worker could buy a car for about $14,500 – the price of an entry level Honda Civic.  Thus as far as the purchasing power of today’s wealthier population is considered, the Tata Nano is exceedingly cheap, at least by the standards of the developed economies.

HOW WILL THE NANO FARE IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?

However, the Nano is not really for people in developed countries.  Sure, it might be sold here, but it will likely be purchased more as a curiosity, or as a simple urban commuter by those who want to flaunt their frugal ways – it will deliver up to 50 mpg without expensive, exotic technology and batteries and is constructed from significantly less material than the average car.  In the developing world it will be more like the Ford Model T, the car that was the first new vehicle that a vast population in a rapidly expanding economy could afford to buy.  However, like the Model T in America, the Tata Nano will likely pass into automotive history as an important cultural icon, at least to populations in developing countries, for that very reason.

How good is the Nano for a car that costs so little? The shape is constrained by the requirement to seat a whole family in the smallest space possible.  The look and feel are determined by the need to use inexpensive, yet durable, materials in the smallest quantity possible to achieve the goal.  The drivetrain is designed and packaged as a means to end, moving people and their things in the most economical way, minimizing production costs, fuel costs, materials, and maintenance expenses.  Given these constraints and goals, the Tata Nano is really quite an achievement.  No other real car in modern times had previously accomplished all of these goals at a comparable price.

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Joe  Johnson is an avid fan of automotive design and connoisseur of car and bike history. In addition to a PhD in Economics, he owns a black Porsche 911 and a Ducati Monster. He enjoys thinking and writing about political economy, and indulging in the experience of good food.

Filed under: Design, New York City, World Tagged: | Cars, Economics, World