Ratan Tata's 'people's car' — the Nano was built to cost ₹1 lakh, and nobody wanted it

The Tata Nano was conceived in 2005 after Ratan Tata saw a family of four on a scooter in the rain. He directed Tata Motors to build a car costing ₹1 lakh ($2,500 at the time) — half the price of the next cheapest car in India. The Nano was unveiled at the 2008 Delhi Auto Expo to global acclaim. Bookings opened in April 2009 and drew 206,000 applications in the first two weeks.

Production was delayed by a political crisis over land acquisition. Tata Motors was forced to relocate its factory from Singur, West Bengal to Sanand, Gujarat, setting the project back by over a year. Deliveries finally began in July 2009. The first 100,000 cars were sold at a special introductory price of ₹1.2 lakh — above the famous ₹1 lakh promise, but still spectacularly cheap.

The Nano's problems emerged quickly. It was marketed as the cheapest car in the world, which created a stigma: owning a Nano became a public admission of poverty. Buyers who could afford a Maruti Alto or Hyundai i10 chose those instead. In 2014, the Nano scored zero stars in Global NCAP crash tests, with the passenger compartment described as unstable. Several fire incidents were reported, though Tata Motors blamed them on aftermarket modifications.

Sales peaked at 74,527 in FY2012, then collapsed. Tata launched a refreshed Nano GenX in 2015 with more features and a power steering option, but it did not reverse the decline. By FY2017, sales had fallen to 7,591. Production ended in May 2018. Tata Motors wrote off the investment — estimated at $3 billion — as a loss. Ratan Tata later called the Nano a 'learning experience.'