RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In our business news today, a new ultra-cheap car for the masses.
It's been dubbed the people's car and generated enormous buzz in the auto industry for a country not known for cars - India.
Unidentified Woman: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being with us at this historic occasion.
MONTAGNE: It was finally unveiled today in New Delhi with a price tag of $2,500. The Indian company Tata is behind it. It's called the Nano.
Murad Ali Baig is an automotive journalist. He was at the press conference this morning where the Nano was presented the world. Good morning.
Mr. MURAD ALI BAIG (Automotive Journalist): Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So Nano, I guess meaning, as in nanosecond - teeny tiny little car?
Mr. BAIG: Nano technologies, micro-technologies, whatever name they've given it, it is currently the lowest cost complete car in the world.
MONTAGNE: Well, complete. Why don't you describe it to us? People have been waiting - breathlessly waiting for this car.
Mr. BAIG: It's not half a car. It's not the sort of car lacking in anything. It's got space. It's got comfort. It's got the optional air-conditioning. It's got a 35 horsepower engine, which won't give you any phenomenal performance, but will give you up to about 60 miles per hour.
MONTAGNE: But that 35 horsepower engine, to put it in perspective, I think that's about a third the size of the smallest car that we here in the United States would have on the road.
Mr. BAIG: You're quite right. I've seen it. It seats four large adults quite comfortably.
MONTAGNE: Does it have a trunk, a boot?
Mr. BAIG: No. It's a rear engine, so there is - it's like the old Volkswagen Beetle. There's not a lot of room in trunk.
MONTAGNE: What is the buying public that Tata Motors is aiming at?
Mr. BAIG: Well, this will open a new segment because this will be half the price of the smallest car in India at the moment. And about three times the price of an average motorcycle.
MONTAGNE: The motorcycle market there in India - it's people who are families, who would like to have a car perhaps but can't.
Mr. BAIG: Absolutely. For many people there is nothing between a second-hand car and a motorcycle.
MONTAGNE: Now, environmentalists are not too happy about the prospect of possibly millions of new cars hitting the road.
Mr. BAIG: We haven't yet seen any test reports, but according to the chairman of the company, the emission level should be about half that of an average new motorcycle.
MONTAGNE: Is the car nice looking?
Mr. BAIG: It's very pretty.
MONTAGNE: Very pretty?
Mr. BAIG: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: Come in different colors?
Mr. BAIG: We only saw three colors.
MONTAGNE: Yeah.
Mr. BAIG: A yellow, a red and a silver. But I mean, that's the least of the problems - I mean to give a dozen colors is no big deal.
MONTAGNE: How has Tata, the company making this car, managed to make a car for $2,500?
Mr. BAIG: Well, they have done a lot of what is called frugal engineering. They have set up a plant in a backward area of Bengal, which has attracted quite a few tax concessions. It has also got a lot of their suppliers of components and parts to set up factories next door to them so that they can reduce the transit costs of transport from different plants all over the country. So they have done a number of steps to shave pennies off the pound.
MONTAGNE: When does this Nano hit the road?
Mr. BAIG: It was vaguely said halfway through next year. So I would imagine we can expect something like September, October this year.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for talking with us.
Mr. BAIG: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Murad Ali Baig is an automotive journalist speaking to us from New Delhi, where the new people's car, the Nano, was unveiled today.