In India, rich and poor line up for $2,000 Nano
| Nakhrola, India
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Months after buying the shiny silver car, farmer Satish Kumar still keeps the plastic wrap on the seats. Most days, his Tata Nano 鈥� his first car 鈥� sits in the front yard, proudly displayed between the brick pillars of a homemade carport. Tucked from sight are a couple of cows and a humble scooter that still is driven a lot more than the four-wheeled wonder.
The Kumars actually don鈥檛 much need a car: Mr. Kumar works in the fields around his house; Mrs. Kumar stays at home; and the kids go to school by bus. The car proves useful for those special occasions when the family wants to arrive together 鈥� and in style. 鈥淚鈥檓 mainly concentrating on using it socially 鈥� taking my whole family to weddings and other family functions,鈥� he says.
For Tata, the Indian automaker, Kumar belongs to a new class of customer, thanks to the Nano鈥檚 price of just $2,000. But while the Nano spurred much chatter about what it allows the middle class to do, Kumar suggests the Indian consumer may be more smitten with what the car allows them to be. 鈥淚 think the Nano is actually used as a signaling device,鈥� says Sourabh Mishra, chief strategy officer at marketing firm Saatchi & Saatchi India. 鈥淚t鈥檚 signaling, 鈥業鈥檓 now part of a group who can afford a lifestyle that hitherto was not possible to me.鈥� 鈥�
Some 10 months after Nano鈥檚 launch, Tata has booked sales of 206,703 cars; 17,000 Nanos have been delivered. Some 70 percent of bookings came from nonmetro areas.
In Delhi showrooms, there are folks like Kumar, whose farming village is on the outskirts of the city. But there are also the wealthy looking for a car for their teen or a chance to own the latest 鈥渟tatus symbol,鈥� says Resham Singh, showroom manager at a Tata dealership: 鈥淲e were expecting people to come who were ... on two-wheelers, or in lower-model cars. It was a total surprise 鈥� people were coming 鈥� who have two or three cars, but wanted the Nano just for the sake of having it.鈥�
Nakhrola, where Kumar grows wheat, lentils, and vegetables, is gentrifying. The suburb of Gurgaon is closing in, chewing up farmland and spitting out high-rise towers. Kumar lives down a dirt lane that hosts as many tractors as cars. One house has an Audi, while the next has little but trash in the yard. In one corner lies an Asian Tiger fitness gym; in another runs an open sewer. Still, 鈥渒eeping up with the Joneses鈥� 鈥� or the Joshis 鈥� is part of life.
鈥淭here are rich people 鈥� landowners 鈥� and they all have cars,鈥� says Kumar. 鈥淣ow what they feel is that I have something new and they don鈥檛, and they should also have it.鈥�
Such peer pressure is common in India, says Deepesh Rathore, an India-based analyst with Global Insight. 鈥淚t is about at least parking one car in your garage because the neighborhood is a car-owning neighborhood.鈥�
Indeed, just four or five times has Kumar taken the car for long drives. As his mother, proud that her son bought the car, says: 鈥淲e can鈥檛 go anywhere because it鈥檚 expensive.鈥�
