To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers

Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is going extinct

9 years

Tata Motors is calling it quits on the world’s cheapest car, following a roller coaster of auto revolution, protests, safety failures, and political turmoil in India.

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To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers
9 years

Once selling 9,000 units in 2011, only three Tata Nano cars have been sold in 2018 so far. The company says it will now only produce its vehicle on demand.

To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers
9 years

After Tata Motors built a new factory in Singur, West Bengal in 2006, the Communist Party of India-Marxist tried to convert nearly 1,000 acres of fertile farmland, sparking mass outrage.

To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers
9 years
** TO WITH INDIA TATA ** FILE ** In this Jan. 10, 2007 file photo, activists of Trinamul Congress and Bhumi Raksha Committee burn a replica of Tata Company's newly launched low cost car Nano, near its factory at Singur, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Calcutta, India. The 141-year-old Tata company, India's oldest and largest conglomerate whose story is intertwined with that of modern India, is struggling to rally from a string of blows that have left the group drowning in condolence calls, not international applause.

AP Photo/File

To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers
9 years

The fallout saw the CPIM ousted after three decades of rule, forcing leadership changes in West Bengal while Tata Motors moved their plant to Sanand in Gujarat.

To match INSIGHT - Indian state rolls out red carpet for carmakers
9 years

The Tata Nano was celebrated upon its launch in 2009 as an alternative to dangerous overcrowding on bicycles and scooters. But several fire safety issues tanked sales by 2011.

Tata Nano sales (units)

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