Tata Nano EV unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show

Tata has been a regular visitor at the Geneva Motor Show, right from the time they displayed their Indica hatchback more than a decade ago. Last year, they amazed the world with their Tata Nano and this time its another variant of the Nano called Nano EV. Yup, Tata was working on the Nano EV and here it is. Looks like Tata wants a new tag – maker of the world’s cheapest Electric vehicle. The EV will first hit markets in Scandinavia and the UK while India might have to wait for few more years to get the same. Lack of proper infrastructure and no help from the government in the form of reduced taxes for electric vehicles seem to be the reason for the delay. The EV might also cost upto two times the cost of a standard Nano, which is still a great price for an EV.

Tata vice chairman Ravi Kant said the company will be taking the car to Europe within three years, starting with Britain and Scandinavia. In fact, Tata will begin selling the petrol variant of Nano in Europe by next year. Europe is increasingly getting carbon conscious and Tata wants to tap that market as well. They will have the Indica EV on sale in Norway this year. However, Ravi Kant declined to disclose a price range for the electric Nano, adding there were no immediate plans to sell the zero-emission vehicle in India. Tata claims that the Nano EV uses super polymer lithium ion batteries which provide superior energy density as compared to conventional batteries. It will have a predicted range of up to 160 km and an acceleration of 0-60 kmph under 10 seconds. These figures sound very promising and are comparable to Nissan’sLeaf, the world’s first mass market EV.