Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Mar 23, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Mar 23, 2009 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version | Audio | Blogs |
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Corporate
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New Projects Marketing - New Products & Services Industry & Economy - Cars
Alka Kshirsagar Pune, March 22 If you went hunting for the key materials on which the world’s cheapest car is built, the most prominent would be intangible. That is the confidence of Team Nano that every received wisdom of car engineering design can be challenged. “And it was,” says an engineer closely associated with its development. A close second would also be another intangible: The conviction of the team that every rupee mattered. Cost became a key attribute of every one of Nano’s components. Taken apart, the world’s cheapest car would disaggregate to 2,500 individual parts. With material cost accounting for the largest chunk — roughly 60 per cent — of the ex-factory price tag for the Nano, naturally, much work had to be done in this area. “Each of the 2,500-odd components of the Nano has been developed from the scratch, and the inspiration for some came from allied components of two-wheelers,” says an engineer who helped develop the little car. “In the instrument cluster, for instance,” he explains, “we studied the parts used in two-wheelers and then those used in the Indica and concluded that for the Nano, this component would have to be something that took the middle ground in cost.” “It took a lot of interaction with vendors before the final product was developed,” he adds. Position wiseThe positioning of the instrument cluster in the car too is a cost-cutting story in itself. The panel is positioned in the middle of the dashboard to make it suitable for both right- and left-hand drive versions, the Team Nano member says. This, he asserts, has saved the company the cost of developing different moulds for different variants. The reference obviously is to the Nano Europa unveiled earlier this month at the Geneva Motor Show and expected to be launched in select global markets by end 2009. Some cost reduction came from the use of thinner gauge sheet metal. Fins that give curvature have been strategically placed to add strength to the body and, yes, the car passed the crash test! How vendors geared up People’s car – a history The making of the Nano Mega plans for super mini More Stories on : New Projects | New Products & Services | Cars | Automobile Components | Tata Motors Ltd
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