DISQUS

no land line, no cable, no tv, and no cell phone, just skype, . Until I can get my hands on iphone 3g! Then a cell phone and laptop.

Are there many vegetarian refried options? Not sure if you have told me if you were raised veg but that could have drastically reduced the selection. Cheers to Rosarita!

Great post Andrew, thanks for the shout out as well. I am currently living and working in Delhi and due to the nature of my job I am getting to see a good portion of India. I'll do my best to fill people in with India's take on the Nano. These days their is a general sense of optimism among Indians. In the media its a bit to overstated but none the less India's is becoming a major global player and not just financially. In some ways the Nano is one of the spoils India is reaping due to the upsurge in growth. The growth in the market certainly has its winners and losers. Largely the winners are the expanding middle class. The losers are the lower class/casts.
So who will be buying new nanos? Largely it will be this middle class. As many of you know the retail price is about one "lahk" (2,500.00 USD). No car before in India has been sold at such a low price (the actual cost after taxes and registration will fall around 3,000-3,500). Part of the reason Tata can go so low is that Tata is one of the major steel manufacturers in India. A friend at work tells me that 80,000 have already been sold in advanced. In the future they project about one million units per year. Another friend at work said he is already going to buy two. As the tata founder stated he became inspired when he saw full families riding a motorbike. This is true. Walk around any city in India and you will most likely see this. It is not a new phenomenon and will certainly continue into the future. On a purely safety level the nano is going to put families into cars instead of on a bike. This will save lives so certainly a plus. The nano does have some minuses as well at least as I see it.
Driving in India is no joke. It takes special talent to survive any city. My own scooter record can attest to this fact. In less then a month I got into one minor accident, closely avoided another, and always say my prayers before going out. And I live in what could be considered a suburb of Delhi. As my friend told me the nano is geared for only "city driving". The reason for this is most roads in India lack maintenance. When you travel outside of cities you can go a bit faster. This is nice but the quality of roads are at best sporadic. You can be going for 10 miles or so and get to the top of a hill or go around a bend and suddenly be on a dirt road or rock road. Not much warning at all. From pictures I've seen the nano looks like only the bare minimums to drive. Small tires and I'm guessing minimal shocks. Another road obstacle is the cow, goat, and the ever present dog. In every city I have been to cows will be roaming from the fields to the highways. Many times we have had to swerve suddenly to avoid hitting a cow. In any car you wouldn't want to hit a cow and in India this goes double. Cows are considered "holy" and if you hit one you may be better off fleeing. A mob could easily form. What makes avoiding cows hard for the nano is its lack of power steering. You don't need power steering to drive a car and tata saved significantly for scrapping this but give me the option in India I'll opt for the power. So getting back to the city. Many times I've been in some massive traffic jams in Delhi trying to make a flight. In many places the roads are narrow and what should be a two lane suddenly becomes a 5-6 lane street. In India you have large trucks, smaller SUV's, cars, scooters, bicycles, and "rickshaws". A rickshaw is basically the size of a golf cart. Often the only thing moving in this mess is the motorbike. Lets fast forward to 2009. With a million more nanos on the road what will this mean for cities? I'm told Delhi is the fourth largest city in India. In the biggest cites I think this will be a problem. Where Delhi will have an advantage is that it is building a massive metro connecting all major parts of the city. I've ridden it once and must say it compares with any I've been on. Lastly what will more cars mean for the environment? Most times I go out jogging around my block my lungs burn. To put it lightly Delhi has a lot of smog and dirt flying around. The nano has a relatively small motor and low emissions but add say 1/5 of the million to a city like Delhi and you may have a bit more to choke on (each year add another million).
Am I being to hard on the nano? Maybe. It certainly does have its pluses. And who should decide what Indian's should spend their money on other then themselves. When you get an automobile in India its a big deal. My friend said a party is standard not to mention the envy of all your neighbors. Is the nano the car that will define the future of India? This next year should be telling. I'll keep you posted.