Many environmentalists are concerned about the effect of the Tata Nano on global warming. Finally on sale last week after seven months of delays, the Nano promises to be the world’s cheapest new car.

The Nano is a small, four-seater car made by Tata,the Indian tea to tech conglomerate. As India’s economy has boomed, so has demand for cars from the growing middle class. At present, only one in 8000 people in India own a car compared to 450 cars to 8000 people in developed countries. But India has population of 1 billion and is a country hungry for cars. Nobel Prize winner, R.K. Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that he was ‘having nightmares’ about the Nano.

The Nano promises to bring motoring to the masses with prices starting at 1 lakh (100 000 rupees or around $2000,£1200). Better-equipped versions with electric windows and air conditioning are available that will cost about 50 000 rupees more. But this still much cheaper than than the previous cheapest model on the Indian market, the Maruti 800 (which is based on an old Suzuki design).

The car itself is reasonably economical. It has a 624cc gasoline engine capable of about 50mpg. Tata claims that it complies with Indian emissions regulations and it has lower emissions levels than current two wheelers.

But at such a low selling price, Michael Walsh, a former US Environmental Protection Agency regulator and now a pollution consultant, worries that the Nano is not fitted with the advanced technology necessary to keep a car’s emissions low throughout its lifetime.

The main worry is that the sheer numbers of Nanos on India’s roads will send India’s already-bad pollution soaring. Vivek Chattopadhyaya is an air pollution specialist at Dehli’s Centre for Science and Environment. He is concerned that ed India’s inadequate infrastructure and high pollution levels did not have the capacity to cope with a huge influx of Nanos.

The Nano’s eco-credentials got off to a bad start with the siting of the factory purpose-built to produce it. Tata spent $292 million building a plant on a 1000 acre site in Singur, West Bengal. However, local farmers, whipped up bu populist local politicians protested, often violently, against the state’s compulsory purchase of the site for Tata’s factory.

Tata cut its losses and moved to an alternative site at Sanand in Gujarat. But much of the original investment will have to be written off. The new factory will be more expensive to build at $389 million. To environmentalists, there are also the wasted carbon emissions from having to abandon the first factory, giving the whole project an unnecessarily high carbon footprint.

Until the Sanand facility comes on stream in 2010, Tata is producing the Nano at its existing factory at Pantnagar. This only has a production capacity of 50,000 compared with 250,000 in its first year rising to 500,000 thereafter for the new factory.

But this might not be an ecological disaster in the making. The Indians can’t be blamed for wanting the personal mobility that those in developed nations take for granted. Perhaps some of the environmental impact of the Nano can be avoided.

Tata plans to build a version of the Nano for Europe. It will have to meet strict European Union emissions and safety standards. A US version is then on the cards. Also, Tata believes that most of the Nanos sold in India will be the more expensive version. So it might be possible to incorporate the emissions technology needed for Europe and the US into Indian models at a reasonable cost that Indian consumers would be prepared to pay.
The economies of scale possible from the huge production of the Nano may also make this possible.

Another cause for optimism is the fact that Tata owns Jaguar/Land Rover. The latest Jaguar XF Diesel S shows how good JLR’s engineers are when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions. With a three-litre, twin-turbo diesel engine developing 271bhp, the XFS emits only 179g/km of carbon dioxide. Compare that to a 2.0 litre gasoline Ford Mondeo which has 145 bhp and emits CO2 of 189 g/km. Tata can call on this expertise.

The G-Whiz, a micro Indian electric car, gained a cult status with many celebrities in London. If the Nano can become the ‘must have’ city car in Europe and America, then it may help reduce greenhouse emissions on a wider scale.

If you’ve ever been on an Indian road, you’ll know that it’s dangerous chaos. But mostly people get where they’re going without harm. Hopefully, the introduction of the Nano will be the same.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites