In a bid to boost its sales, India’s struggling Tata Motors unveiled a new costlier variant of the Nano car yesterday, featuring power steering. The new variant has been named as Nano Twist.
Tata Nano launched in 2009 was touted as the world’s cheapest car. Officials of the company claimed at that point of time, the car would revolutionize the way people travel in India. However, the car failed to attract customers, as most Indians preferred staying away from buying a vehicle tagged the worlds cheapest.
Learning from this, the car manufacturer launched a new upscale variant especially for youngsters between the age group 18 and 34. Twist, features power steering along with remote keyless entry, a four-speaker music system with Bluetooth and a higher ground clearance for rough terrain.
The steering system incorporates a special feature named Active Return, which returns the steering wheel to its original position once a turn has been executed. Tata says that this feature improves stability when driving at higher speeds.
Ranjit Yadav, president, passenger vehicles business, Tata Motors, said the car was “loaded with trendy features” to make it a “smart city car to hang out with”.
Minimal changes have been made to the exterior of the car. For instance, the new Damson Purple color. Only the interiors of the car have got a fresh look. The car is still powered by a 624cc 2-cylinder petrol motors, which makes 38PS and 4-speed manual transmission.
The Tata Nano Twist is available in a single variant, XT, and is priced at Rs 2.36 lakh, ex-Delhi. This price is approximately Rs. 14,000 more than the top-end non power-steering version of the Tata Nano.In December, Tata Motors sold just 554 Nano cars, down 75 percent from 2,202 cars a year earlier.