Tata Motors, India's largest auto company, seems to have postponed its plan to introduce the diesel model of its iconic car, Nano, in the Indian auto industry. Earlier, it was believed that the model will be introduced by the end of 2012 but industry experts believe that the launch schedule has been now shifted to almost by the end of current fiscal. Rumours taking rounds of the model have said that the auto maker is unable to achieve the announced remarkable fuel efficiency of 40 kmpl and therefore, the research and development department of Tata Motors is concentrating over the same. Till now, the company's flagship model, Indica eV2 was delivering industry leading fuel economy of 25 kmpl and thus, buyers are expecting even more from the Nano.
Reportedly, the car will be assimilated with a 0.8 litre two-cylinder engine, which will have a displacement of 800 cc. The maximum power churned out by the engine of this model is expected to stand at 38 bhp with a highest torque of around 100 Nm at fairly low 1500-2000 rpm. Besides mileage, another major issue faced by the auto maker while designing Nano diesel is Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) level, which is considerably high as the model has been packed with twin-cylinder diesel powertrain. Noise damping is a significant issue and in order to avoid that, the company is required to incorporate more damping material, which will eventually increase the cost of production for Tata Motors.
Earlier, the auto maker generated a ray of hope in the hearts of Indian buyers with the announcement of a new budget car and the increase in cost of project will not do justice with the sentiments of buyers. On the other hand, the company is in no mood to compromise on the quality of its upcoming product as they have already witnessed not-so-good times during the initial stages of Nano petrol, which dented the reputation of Tata Motors at that time.
Industry experts believe that Tata Motors should find a reasonable solution to the issue very soon, as the government is planning to apply extra tax on the diesel vehicles, which will act as a barrier for the company in reaping some decent profits from the project. And the most important, Tata Motors should understand that the buyers are waiting for this trend setting model in the small car segment from quite a long time. Also, the proposed launch of Nano CNG is on the cards of auto maker but none of the company officials came forward to comment on the same.
