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LAST DATE: January 27th 11:59pm EST

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Tata's 1-lakh ($2500) Car “Nano” Launched

The eagerly-awaited (since 2003) Tata 1-lakh car “Nano” is finally launched today at the Auto Expo in Delhi. Rediff has a nice article with photos.

According to Tatas, the car will have a 624-cc petrol engine generating 33 bhp of power. It will sport a 30-litre fuel tank and 4-speed manual gearshift. One of Nano's three versions will come with air conditioning, but will have no power steering. It will have front disk and rear drum brakes. The company claims mileage of 23 km per litre. It is also reported that Nano would have 20% greater internal volume and would be 8% smaller in size than its nearest competitor Maruti-800 (priced around 1.8 Lakh).

Ratan Tata, while unveiling the Nano, said: "The car will meet all current safety norms and all emission criteria. The pollution it will cause will be lower than 2-wheelers." But still the project has been criticized across the country by Pachauri and other environmentalists since it might add more infrastructural and environmental load on the ever increasing global warming problem in India. Besides, there have been protests in West Bengal and Delhi by around 12000 landowners whose land was forcefully acquired for setting up a production factory for the same project.

Despite, people are looking forward to the car, which would cost 1.5 times the Bajaj Chetak scooter. There have been signs by other auto-firms or similar projects on the way. Bajaj showcased their 1-lakh concept car 3 days back and even Suzuki (Maruti) has announced that a 660cc low-segment car is in the pipeline.

Anyone having interesting info about the car, plz add here :-)