Tata Nano GenX

Since the economy was doing terribly, but people still needed to go here and there, the solution to keep selling cars in the late 2000s was finding a way to make them cheaper, right? It sounded so simple that people at Tata decided it could be their breakthrough to become a global automaker. Nano was released as the cheapest car in the world, but, as the following years have been telling us, it managed to turn out a failure from both the buyers and the automaker’s points of view. Tata wants this article’s facelift to give it a new chance, but will it be just another case of “too little, too late”?

When a product focuses that much on being cheap, it’s extremely hard to expect high quality from it. Sure, there are always exceptions, but unfortunately Nano was never one of them. It has faced several technical problems during its first years, many of them ending in fire occurrencies. Besides, those who took such risks would have a vehicle with very questionable design outside, and the bare minimum to comply with Indian regulations inside. Nano didn’t sell as well as the company needed, its huge factory now operates with a lot of excess capacity, and something had to be done as soon as possible. However, there was so much money invested in the current car that thinking of entirely new projects was just impossible.

As the pictures anticipate, Nano’s news begins with a small facelift. The front fascia features darkened headlights, a black plastic strip which pretends to be an upper grille, and a new bumper. The latter connects the fog lights with a new air intake that resembles a smiling mouth just too much. There are also tinted windows, new wheel designs, and a rear bumper with a fake air outlet whose design imitates the front one’s. Nothing that helped to steer this car away from the very weird look of its egg-shaped silhouette, or from uninspired elements such as that crease above the air intakes located behind the rear doors. On the plus side, noticing the new Nano on the street should be an easy task, given that there aren’t many of the previous one.

Opening the doors will reveal a slightly renewed cabin. The steering wheel is new, as well as the audio system and the air vents. As a response to the humilliating crash-test results of the outgoing car, Tata claims to have improved Nano’s structure, although it’s still deprived of basic safety equipments such as airbags or ABS brakes. In case you don’t mind that, you can drive the upscale versions of this automobile with eletric steering and even semi-automatic transmission. Its fuel tank only takes 24 liters, but the 0.6-liter engine is small enough to grant it a maximum range of more than 500 km – its 38 hp of power and 5.2 kgfm of torque contribute to an average consumption of 23.6 kpl. In India, Nano GenX’s prices will go from 199,000 to 289,000 rupees.