Small of fame
Business Standard — January 21, 2008

You only need to look at Tata partner Fiat's history for a remarkable parallel to the Nano

A half-century separates the two cars, but the premise behind both cars is the same: put more people - especially the ones who are on two wheels - into cars. If you read up on Fiat's history, you'll realise that the Nuova 500 did the same thing that the Tata Nano has set out to do. The cheeky little Italian car was single-handedly responsible for a drop in two-wheeler sales. In 1965, the Italian market for two-wheelers was down to 2,00,000 units; it was as high as 3,30,000 units in 1957, the year the Nuova 500 was launched. Now that's a nice little factoid for you, Mr Tata. Oh, and for Mr Bajaj too!

But the Nuova 500 was not the first Fiat to offer personal mobility on four wheels. Credit for that goes to the original 500 (it sounds better when you say it in Italian: Cinquecento) also fondly known as the Topolino. The first 500 was introduced in 1936, and was in production well after the Second World War till 1955. On the 4th of July, 1957, Fiat unveiled the successor to the Topolino and called it the Nuova 500. Now, over 50 years later, you can call it the spiritual predecessor to the Nano. Because it has quite a few fundamental things in common to the world's most famous Tata car. One, it was built to a cost. Two, it had an engine at the rear and powered the rear wheels. Three, it featured all-round independent suspension. Four, it offered similar kind of fuel efficiency that the Nano claims. And yes, design and appearance is key to both cars.

Let's get closer to the two cars in question. There was a reason why the Nuova 500 was built to a cost. Unlike the Tata car, its launch price of 465,000 lire was not an objective. Keeping the taxable horsepower was, as well as the cost involved in putting it together. The legendary engineer, Dante Giacosa, who was instrumental in creating some of the greatest Fiats ever, said in his book Forty Years of Design with Fiat, "The aim was to give the car a pleasant style and as light and robust a structure as possible; but it also had to be simple and economic to produce. As I created the plaster model I tried to make the sheet metal surfaces as small as possible in order to reduce weight and cost..."

The 500 was a marvel of clever packaging, and Giacosa was a past master in pulling it off. Though the first cars featured only two seats and a bench at the rear, Fiat quickly improved their offering by putting in a few more goodies and adding two more seats. The Nano is also an example of clever packaging. The mono-volume design and the drivetrain tucked at the rear means a whole lot of space has been liberated for the passengers, and unlike the 500, it has four doors. Though it was a cheap car, the 500 was not that radically cheap or bereft of features like the Nano is. However, that's nothing to complain about. Fiat kept adding more variants of the 500 to increase its appeal (and consequently costs) over the years, and which is what we can expect from the Nano. Surely, the invitation to visit the Tata showroom is that benchmark price, but what is certain is that Tata is betting on people to shell out more money for more creature comforts.

Both cars feature two cylinder engines. While the 500's motor was air-cooled, Tata has gone for liquid cooling. Tata's original plan was to incorporate a 583cc engine, but that was deemed insufficient when it came to performance, hence the new all-aluminium two-cylinder motor displacing 624cc and developing 33 bhp at 5500 rpm and 4.9 kgm of torque at 2500 rpm. The Fiat, on the other hand, debuted with a 479cc engine developing 13 bhp at 4000 revs, but over the years, the same motor not only got a boost in horsepower, but was eventually displacing 499.5cc. In fact, the last of the line 500s actually got a bigger 594cc engine. Similarly, once the Nano gets seen on our roads, Tata will follow it up with a much-awaited common-rail diesel motor, which is expected to be around 800cc in displacement.

The 500's diminutive size and a tiny motor did not mean it was not a fun-to-drive car. It was still a nimble little runabout that could be chucked into corners effortlessly. At the time it was launched, the 500 used the latest in engineering techniques. It featured an integral body/chassis structure, not too different from the Nano, plus it came with all-round independent suspension as well. Again, it was Giacosa who was at the top of his form with the legendary Fiat. He managed to give the 500 a fine balance that made it an effervescent car to drive. And that's where the big question mark is with the Tata people's car. The Nano also features an independent suspension setup, but the challenge for Tata will be to counter the rear weight bias of the car to make it engaging to drive. Fitting wider tyres at the rear of the car is one thing, but getting the handling of the Nano perfect will be a challenge for Tata engineers.

As far as the production numbers go, Tata is quite ambitious with the Nano. They plan to produce 2,50,000 units in the first year of production, double it to five lakh units by the next year, and by 2010, they want a million Nanos swarming out of their manufacturing facilities. Of course, this will include exports; still, that's a lot of cars. Compared to this, by the time the last 500 rolled out on the 4th of August, 1975 - after 18 years of being in production - 38,93,294 units were built by Fiat, almost four million units. There's no doubt however that figure will pale in comparison to that of the Nano.

There's one more sizeable challenge for Tata: fuel consumption. Though the diesel motor will definitely stretch the litre very well, the petrol Nano has to come with a compelling fuel efficiency figure. While Tata's 20 kpl claim seems pretty achievable, that figure should not fall short in real life conditions. It can be pretty difficult to persuade Indian 100cc motorcycle riders to give up their 60-plus kpl expectations. But Tata Motors should take comfort from what the great Giacosa once said. "However small it might be, an automobile will always be more comfortable than a motor scooter."

Srinivas Krishnan, BS Motoring