The Hindu Business Line : A date with Nano at the shopping mall

The combination of nuclear family, environmental awareness and less chaotic motoring landscape exists abroad. The Nano should strike a chord in Europe which has a history of choosing small cars.

— Vivek Bendre

The Nano could signal a new category in the urban market.

Shyam G. Menon

One Wednesday I bumped into the Nano. It was the last thing I expected to see amidst clothes and like at the Tata-owned Westside store. But there it was, good looking, enjoying attention; fitting the image of a consumer durable rather easily.

People seemed impressed. “This can easily take us all,” a woman who had come shopping with her family said. In no time, her daughter was at the wheel, she sat alongside and her big-built husband took the backseat. The Nano took them all, though it seemed more like a family on scooter wheels.

Sighting the engine

Forgetting the engine is at the rear, I asked the helpful sales attendant to open the bonnet. No engine there of course, but I realised that you would have to open the bonnet every time the car tanked up, as the fuel hatch is within.

“Can we see the engine?” someone else asked. “Sure sir,” the attendant said. I liked him, he was polite salesman. He opened the rear doors of the LX model, collapsed the rear seat, rolled back some insulating layers and pointed to a lid held down by a few screws. The engine was below that. “You can fold the backseat and stash luggage here,” he said.

When he got out I asked him to open the boot. “No sir, that doesn’t open from outside, it’s fixed,” he said. I came off appreciating the design challenge handled by Tata Motors; a car with that much space, at that price. Not to forget, the way it is being marketed — like a washing machine or refrigerator.

In crowded Mumbai, Rolls Royce can promise me a nano-Phantom for free. I would still take the suburban train. On the uncomfortable train seat, I thought about the Nano and the casualties in the auto industry the media had predicted. Would I give up a Maruti 800 and buy this car?

The Nano offers more space, much of it as headroom. With external dimensions smaller than the Maruti, the roomier inside was achieved by cutting boot space and housing the engine below the backseat.

Continued interest

Next day, I returned to the store at Kalaghoda. Interest in the Nano continued strong, but at least one man bemoaned the car’s rear. And though not quite happy with the angle of the steering column, he found the rear seat comfortable.

But how long can such comfort last if luggage and engine can be accessed only if he gets out?

No, this isn’t the 800’s assassin. It is more a deceptive challenger, and would acquire a killer shade if the 800 beating promise of the Indica is also brought to play. Together, they have the Maruti 800 in a squeeze. But should that matter to a customer with a defined want?

Perhaps, the real casualty would be two-wheelers then. It sounded reasonable, though the crosshairs appeared fixed on only a few and not the entire lot. Nano can challenge a two-wheeler on the strength of price and versatility.

Quite likely some families planning a bike earlier would opt for the Nano. How about the semi-urban and rural markets? Aggressive pricing and a diesel version may trigger sales in that geography but relevance is an altogether different issue.

For example, families in semi-urban and rural areas are not as nuclear as they are in urban areas. They also carry a lot around. A crowded Nano defeats the principles that gave birth to it. So where would the Nano sell?

That signals a new category in the urban market. The Nano would be a good second or third vehicle for those with money to splurge; it would be a statement for those valuing green but loathe to disown the car; it would be a statement for those still linking four wheels to social status; it could be a nice car for senior citizens and gregarious college students; it could be a taxi in the airport queue for the right customer with only himself and a little luggage to transport.

The more I thought, the less I was convinced that this car could be a substitute for any other product in the generic sense. It will tug and poach at the price level, that’s it. The issue then is: How much scope exists in congested Indian cities to host one more vehicle category; a category that would be ‘in addition to’ and not ‘in replacement of’?

Demand abroad?

The combination of nuclear family, environmental awareness and less chaotic motoring landscape exists abroad. The Nano should strike a chord in Europe which has a history of choosing small cars. Hit by recession and now beholding such images as a near bankrupt General Motors collaborating with Segway, even the American market may grudgingly wish to try the Nano. I am hopeful about Europe; the US in comparison has a lot of ego to shed. The process is on, courtesy recession. Few weeks ago, one of the world’s most respected commentators on the auto industry, Graeme Maxton, declared ahead of his address to the NAFA Fleet Management Association in New Orleans that it would be at least a decade before the global car industry revives to healthy sales levels.

Worldwide vehicle registrations are projected to fall from 71.9 million in 2007 to 53.8 million in 2010, not much different from the 48 million of 1990. By 2020, that would limp up to 67 million.

“Many consumers have borrowed too much and are seeing the value of their homes evaporate. When the recovery eventually comes, many will need to rebuild their savings before buying a new car,” Maxton said.

A new car will not be a priority. That bleak picture overseas for new car purchases and prospects therein for replacements relevant to the changed world could be the real opportunity for the small, cheap Nano.

(The author is a Mumbai-based freelance writer.)

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