IT HAS no air conditioning, stereo or air bags. It has been mocked as a lawn mower for four. Top Gear, a popular television programme in Great Britain, has likened it to a Pokemon. Nothing doing. The Nano - India's first-ever "people's car" - is taking India by storm.
The mass appeal of the Nano is easy to explain. For the longest time, the picture of an Indian family of four - or more - piled onto a scooter has been a common sight. Indeed, the very idea of ensconcing the average Indian family into a car inspired Mr Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Sons. The Nano's US$2,000 (S$3,000) price tag will put the pint-sized car within reach of the country's teeming millions of working and middle classes. Britain has savoured the Mini, the United States the Ford Model T and Germany the Beetle. No one should begrudge India its Nano.
That said, the Nano's runaway success is compounding India's transportation woes. As more of the country's 1.1 billion people buy cars, India could soon overtake the US in emission levels.
The country's road network is already bursting at the seams: Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata jam around 700 cars into every kilometre of road (Singapore's figure is about a third that). To accommodate India's aspiring Nano class, the country's road infrastructure will have to be upgraded - hopefully at a rate faster than the car's lame acceleration.
But as a driving instructor put it, if India's masses can finally afford it, happiness is much more important than traffic. The Nano is already showing the way forward for the global car industry, which is struggling amid the global downturn. The car's diminutive shell was designed to be rigid with less material. Its fuel economy of 24km per litre beats Toyota's frugal Prius - the choice of greenies. And the manufacturing system of the Nano is reported to be based on a revolutionary model of outsourcing, whereby production is completely outsourced to external parties. Hopefully, such a business model - which enables carmakers to focus on design and marketing - will find its way around the world.
One Harvard professor has even likened the Nano to Apple's iPod. Like the iPod, the Nano is a blank slate that could be used for a slew of applications, be it for rickshaw drivers to use as safer and more profitable taxis, or for farmers to ferry their goods to market more quickly. Yes, the Nano does have its detractors - particularly those of the snooty sort from the developed West. In the meantime, however, no one should deny India its Nano-lution.
