Tata Nano was launched on 23rd March in Mumbai with much fanfare. Over 100 media persons were present at the launch ceremony with over 1000 guests. The Tata Nano is a rear-engined, four-passenger city car aimed primarily at the Indian market. It was first presented at the 9th annual Auto Expo on 10 January 2008, at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The sales of the Nano will begin in July.

Nano has been designed with a family in mind, has a roomy passenger compartment with generous leg space and head room. It can comfortably seat four persons. Four doors with high seating position make ingress and egress easy. With a length of 3099mm, width of 1495mm, height of 1652mm and with adequate ground clearance, it can effortlessly manoeuvre on busy roads in cities as well as in rural areas.

It's mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the powertrain at the rear, enables it to uniquely combine both space and manoeuvrability, which sets a new benchmark among small cars. The main styling elements of Nano are centre crease on the bonnet, side scoops which not only looks sporty but also helps to keep the rear mounted engine cool. Tata is also providing some add-ons like alloys, rear spoiler & sunroof to make Nano more stylish & attractive. From the rear it looks more or less like the Indica Vista with vertical tail lamps. The centrally placed exhaust pipe looks very cool.

Nano has more space inside in comparison to the Maruti 800 and Alto. The top model LX comes with three spoke steering wheel while the base model & CX features rather simple two spoke one. There are many cost saving factors like the hazard warning light switch has been placed behind the steering wheel. The front power window switches have been placed on the centre console to save the wiring costs.

Nano has a rear mounted , all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 624 cc, multi point fuel injection petrol engine which develops maximum power of 34.5 Bhp at 5250 rpm with maxiumum torque of 48 Nm at 3000 rpm. This is the first time that a two-cylinder petrol engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft. The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system.

Variants of Tata Nano

• Nano Base/Standard/Basic
• Nano CX
• Nano LX