Tata Motors unveiled the 100,000-rupee car earlier today at the Auto Expo in Delhi today.

Tata Chairman Ratan Tata talks about his inspiration for the car:

Speaking at the unveiling of the car at a motor show in Delhi, Tata chairman Ratan Tata said: “”I observed families riding on two-wheelers – the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby.

“It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family…” [Independent]

This is true. I once saw eight people on a scooter with a side-car, and routinely have seen five on one without one. I wasn’t too worried about them safety-wise, though. Traffic in Bombay is slow, and these dudes are smart and resourceful. They reach places significantly faster and more efficiently than any car would, in spite of their large loads.

I’m more worried about the Bihari dudhwala (milk-man) on his bicycle. Once one of them swerved in front of me when I was driving a moped on a busy street, and then swerved to avoid me when he realized I was blocked by a truck on my other side. People say they put water in the milk, but I’d swear this one was putting a little bit of narangi (local liquor) and toking a little on the side.

I don’t think that the dudhwala is Tata’s primary target, though. And given the amount of carbon and other pollutants in the air, I do see one advantage of owning the Nano. At least the family of eight will not have to inhale vast amounts of soot and shower after every ride on their two-wheeler to remove a nice thick layer of gunk on their faces and bodies, if they can afford the Nano. Even laundry costs will go down.

If they can fit eight on a scooter though, I wonder how many they’d be able to pack into the car. Many in India do still live in the joint-family system. My previous remark about local liquor notwithstanding, the joint-family system has nothing to do with marijuana. It just means that several generations, and siblings and siblings’ families live together in one house, or in several cases, a Bombay apartment. And many Bombay apartments are not too much larger than the inside of the Nano, which once again leads me to wonder how many they’ll manage to fit in there.

But (as usual) I digress. The nitty-gritties on the car were also talked about:

The car would be commercially launched in the second half of 2008, and would be produced at the Singur plant in West Bengal.

Speaking at the launch, Ratan Tata, said: “The car is powered by a 624cc, 30 bhp engine and will deliver mileage of about 20 kpl.”

The standard variant (without AC) of Nano is priced at Rs 1 lakh for dealers excluding VAT and transportation. There will be two deluxe variants with AC.

“The car has already undergone full frontal collision tests and will soon be undergoing side impact tests this year. It will be Euro-IV compliant and will meet all emission norms till 2010″, Tata said.

The car is 8% smaller in terms of length than the Maruti 800, but has 21% more room internally. [Business Standard]

Although it’s impressive that the emission standards are in line with European ones, it’s not going to be sold in the West as of now.

The irony of it all is that Ford talked earlier this week about launching their own small car, and Tata is now one of the front-runners in buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. I guess this completes the circle.

Ford Motor plans to more than double its investment in India to produce a small car for the fast-growing local market and to build an engine manufacturing plant there.

The company is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will increase spending in India by $500 million, raising its total investment to $875 million, as it focuses on making the country a regional hub for small-car manufacturing.  [link]

Since the auto-maker is tanking badly on the U.S. market, it’s now  moving the center of gravity of operations further East.

Ford has been struggling to reduce its reliance on North American markets, where sales are falling sharply, and to increase its presence in Asia’s booming markets.

The new investment follows similar moves made in Thailand and China in the last six months.

Let’s just wait and see what happens. My old Ford clunker ultimately ended up costing me several small cars over its last years. At any rate, let’s have a little token praise to the des from Ford executives, and we’re good to go.

In remarks prepared for a news conference on Tuesday in Chennai, John G. Parker, Ford’s executive vice president for Asia Pacific and Africa, called the India investment a reflection of “the extraordinary potential” of India.

Extraordinary potential, indeed.