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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Autos

World’s Cheapest Car - 50 mpg! Will not be sold in United States

The world’s cheapest automobile is now the $2,000 Tata Nano, a 50 mpg economy car that will not be sold in the United States. Tata Motors, India’s leading producer of trucks and third-biggest carmaker will release the tiny Nano this April, in India. 

Tata’s $2,000 base-level Nano is stripped down to the bare essentials: no radio, no air bags, no passenger-side mirror and a single windshield wiper. It’s 623-cubic centimeter, two-cylinder engine makes 35 horsepower capable of propelling the miniature five-seater to a top speed 75 mph. 

"This is a benchmark kind of a model. You Indians always make us think,” said GM CEO Rick Wagoner.

I’ll speculate the possible reasons why the Nano is not gracing American soil could include that it wouldn’t pass American crash test standards, or possibly that people in high places would rather not see a car imported to our country that could potentially take a large slice out of Detroit’s already shrinking pie. Of course, this is only speculation/conspiracy theory as official word on Tata’s reasoning isn’t readily available at the moment. 

Learn more about the Nano at the official Nano website (which has already seen 30 million hits) at http://tatanano.inservices.tatamotors.com/tatamotors/. 
 



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