The Tata Nano has received the world’s oldest and most coveted GOOD DESIGN™ Award for 2010, which is conferred annually by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies ( www.chi-athenaeum.org ). The award for the Tata Nano has come in the category of transportation.
Founded in Chicago in 1950, GOOD DESIGN bestows international recognition for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design. In 2010, GOOD DESIGN celebrated its 60-year anniversary as the world’s oldest and most prestigious awards programme for product and graphic design.
The Tata Nano’s design is such that it offers an incredibly spacious passenger compartment which can comfortably seat four adults. With a length of just 3.1 metres, width of 1.5 metres and height of 1.6 metres, the Tata Nano has the smallest exterior footprint for a car in India but is 21% more spacious than the smallest car available today.
A high seating position makes ingress and egress easy. Its small size coupled with a turning radius of just 4 metres, makes it extremely manoeuvrable in the smallest of parking slots.
The engine enables the car to have a top speed of 105 kmph and negotiate inclines with a gradeability of 30%. Its fuel efficiency of 23.6 km/litre, certified by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) under mandated test conditions, is the highest for any petrol car in India. The high fuel efficiency, coupled with a low kerb weight of 600 kg, ensures that the Tata Nano – at 101 gm / km – has the lowest CO2 emission amongst cars in India.
Since August this year, the company has already begun open sales of the Tata Nano, and it is already freely available in 12 states. Retail sales have substantially increased in the first five states of open sales. Besides its already existing showrooms, the company is setting up Special Nano Access Points for customers in the hinterlands to experience, test-drive or test-ride the car.
Gradually expanding these reach-out initiatives, coupled with customer benefits (4-year / 60,000 km warranty; comprehensive maintenance contract at only Rs.99 per month; finance options up to 90%), Tata Motors will cover the entire country with open sales by March 2011 to take the Tata Nano to those who dream of owning the car.
