Tata Nano automatic in 2009: Rumour

There will be a few Tata Nano units produced by 2008-end as part of a soft launch, and full scale production would start in the first quarter of 2009. But once things get moving, there is more interesting stuff coming up from Tata Motors.

In 2009, we would likely get to see a Tata Nano with an automatic transmission. Chances are, this would be a CVT. At least, thats what we hear so far. There would also be a diesel Nano in 2009. Which would be launched first, we have no idea – and probably nobody has. Tata Motors has many qualities, but sticking to the deadline to the day is not one of them. Almost every highly anticipated car launch from Tata has happened a bit later than expected, often due to reasons beyond their control. Same would probably happen to the automatic Tata Nano and the diesel Nano.

I personally would expect the Nano automatic to turn up only by the end of 2009. Expected price is Rs 1.3 lakhs – that too is just guesswork, frankly. By 2009-end, a lot of factors would have changed – including inflation, input cost, reception to the initial petrol manual transmission Nano models…

A CVT Nano would make sense in a way. Our cities and terrible traffic conditions make automatic transmission a god-send. However, usually, automatic tranbsmissions are priced at a premium over the manual transmission version. Would that work in the case of a Nano? Or has Tata figured out a way to make it almost at the same cost as a manual transmission?

Guess we will have to wait and see.