Tata should swallow its pride and recall the Nano – Telegraph Blogs

Saturday 15 March 2014 | Blog Feed | All feeds

Dean Nelson


Tata should swallow its pride and recall the Nano

A brand new Tata Nano stands in flames in Mumbai (Photo: AP)


A carrier bag has arrived containing two large glossy coffee table books celebrating the first birthday of the Tato Nano, the world’s cheapest car, and the dream come true of India’s most inspirational entrepreneur, Ratan Tata. It is black with the Tata logo and Nano brand embossed in chrome, and inside it features photographs of Mr Tata and press clippings from a year of triumph for India’s "people’s car".

Tata’s dream was to build a small car with enough space inside for the families you see traveling five to a scooter on India’s roads, with babies perched precariously on the laps of their side-saddle mothers. I took a test drive at the company’s Pune track just ahead of last year’s launch and was bowled over by it. I worked out that if I bought a Nano for one lakh (100,000 rupees or around 1400 pounds), it would almost pay for itself in one year through the fuel savings I’d make on not driving the Hindustan Ambassador I had then.

Indian taxi drivers and even rickshaw drivers had the same thought – a Nano is significantly cheaper than a grubby autorickshaw. As a business idea it was a stroke of genius. India is the largest two wheeler market in the world, and the price of a Nano is not much more than a motorbike. But demand for a well-designed, reliable and extraordinarily cheap five seater car will be high in Europe too, where, post-recession, everyone wants cheap. One year on, there are an estimated 25,000 Nanos on India’s roads as Tata looks to speed production and meet the high demand.

But tucked away in the corner of one of this week’s newspapers is a story which highlights why Tata should slam on the brakes: A brand new Nano, one of eleven being driven to a dealer in Gujarat, western India, caught fire. Police said the fire broke out in the rear of the car, but no-one was injured.

A few weeks ago, another fire broke out in the rear of a Nano as it was being driven home from the showroom by its proud new owner. In newspaper pictures of the car, completely engulfed in flames, you could still see the string of marigolds, lime and chillies hung for good luck on the bonnet (see above). The owner, an IT engineer, was lucky. He had not been aware his car was on fire as he drove home with his wife and five year old son, and only realized his family was in danger when a passing motorcyclist warned him.

It is the second Nano to catch fire in the rear while being driven, and the eighth to catch fire or fill with smoke since September last year. Most were caused by an electrical fault in the steering column, which the company says it has resolved. But its engineers do not know why two cars have caught fire recently.

The company denies there is a design flaw, but has yet to establish the cause. A spokesman said:



The company should swallow its pride and take a look at the lessons learned by Toyota, General Motors, Honda and Nissan, which have between them recalled millions of cars.

Four members of a family were killed in a crash in California last August when their Toyota malfunctioned and a woman told a Congressional hearing earlier this month how her car suddenly and unaccountably accelerated from 60 miles per hour to 100. Tata is not there, but when brand new cars are suddenly being engulfed in flames and the company doesn’t know why, it’s not far off.

With only 25,000 cars produced to date, Tata can afford to recall its Nano and fix the problem before another fire takes lives and its glossy new book looks inappropriate on the coffee table. Today Toyota’s reputation is battered, it has recalled more than eight million cars, and it can only sell new cars by offering heavy incentives on what was once a premium product.

Tata should recall the Nano while it is still a cheap option.

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