Tata Motors

Tata Motors

The Tata Nano is a car that has really changed the way consumers, engineers and the automotive media look at small cars and the development process of cars in general. The Tata Nano has been called the “Model T of India.” The concept is there, the idea behind the Nano was to get a set of wheels to every person within India and if they could sell them abroad to then that is a good bonus. The car itself may not be the part that is getting the Nano or Tata so much attention; instead it seems to be the process of how the car was engineered.
Tata Motors

Tata Motors

Tata Technologies in Novi, Mich., has had a lot of visitors lately. In case you weren’t up on your Tata facts, Tata Technologies is the engineering consulting firm that helped Tata Motors, its affiliate, grow to the company it is today. Tata Tech, as the L.A. Times calls it, has been lending the diminutive Nano that they have at their facilities in Michigan to other manufactures for a closer look. Of course, they aren’t allowed to take the car apart bolt by bolt and are under supervision while the car is on loan.The real magic of the Nano is the process at which Ratan Tata and his team of engineers took. According to Kevin Power, a manager at Tata Tech, "Ratan Tata said, 'If we start from zero and build up, how much can we get for $2,000?' That was the philosophical basis of the design. Other automakers tend to start with an existing vehicle and take stuff out to reduce the price."

Bottom line—the Nano may not pass U.S. emissions, have a radio or be the pinnacle of exterior sheet metal sculpting, but it is revolutionizing India and giving other engineers something to think about.

[Source: L.A. Times]