Price of Tata Motor's nano

By the time bookings for the nano car were announced by Tata Motor its price had already exceeded the sensational 1 lakh tag by as much as 27-28% , though the first 1 lakh cars will be be available to the public at Rs 1 lakh only. Thereafter it will be sold at the prevailing price.

But there is one more aspect to the price situation. Bharat Stage IV is slated to be made applicable from 1st April 2010 in 11 cities which are NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru Ahmedabad , Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra . As per the dealer leaflet available at he company's website http://www.tatanano.com/ ,the car’s emission norms are in accordance with Bharat Stage III standards. Though however advertisements by the compay are mentioning CO2 levels of 101 g/km. While the fuel efficiency achieved by the car certainly is indicative of the car's improved CO2 emission , the figure claimed by the company is way better than the current European 2012 target of average emission of 120 gm/km.

But CO2 emission is not the only only parameter in emission standards. There are other non - CO2 emissions. These are Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) , Hydrocarbon (HC),
Carbon monoxide (CO) and in the case of diesel cars an additional parameter Particulate matter.
Now when BS IV for the 11 cities are made applicable from 1st April 2010 as has been slated, all manufacturers will have to incorporate the improved standards. This will naturally increase the cost of manufacture. Maruti has already announced that it will stop manufacture of its legendary Maruti 800 by 2016 when BS IV will be applicable for the entire country, as modifying it to conform to the improved standards will not be a cost effective solution. Of course Maruti 800 is of old design and upgrading it to conform to BS IV standards is a daunting task. In comparison Tata's Nano is definitely of latest and innovative design. Whether such cost will be marginal for Tata Motors is to be seen. Also completing the upgrade will require some time and incidentally the scheduled date is not far. So if there are no extensions to the deadline of implementing BS IV or if nano car is exempted considering its small engine size, people after booking the car, might end up waiting for the delivery. And who knows where the commodity prices will be then. At any rate, the myth called a Rs. 1 Lakh people's car stands vindicated.