Nano: The myth of the people's car

Now that the Nano has found a safe haven in Gujarat, one can hear the huge sigh of relief across the country as millions of potential car owners let out their breath.

As the Tatas struggled with an obdurate West Bengal politician who was clearly impervious to the romance of the car -- proof even against the blandishments of a cute little 'people's car' -- it did appear that the collective automobile fantasy of this country would come crashing down.

But all is well, or so it appears, as India's toughest and reputedly the most efficient chief minister sets about putting the Great Indian Car Dream back on track.

Notions of nationalism are more closely identified with automobile manufacture than any other activity and that explains why so much pride and hope is being invested in Ratan Tata's Nano.

Of course, the primary interest in the Nano, both nationally and globally, is its price tag. The Rs 1 lakh or $ 2,500 price at which the basic model will be sold makes it the ultimate 'people's car', the most affordable set of four wheels invented so far.

As millions here get starry-eyed over the possibility of graduating from their lowly two-wheelers or straight to their very first car, it would be instructive to look at the history of other 'people's cars'.

Other vehicles, too, brought with them the promise of becoming the car of the masses but almost inevitably such cars could not stay the course.

Many of them metamorphosed into classier models that the average buyer (we call him the common man) simply could not afford; others just drove off into the sunset after a limited run. And the definition of who the 'people' are can get diluted or change radically as costs increase.

For all the threat of a disruptive technology that 'people's cars' have posed over the decades, the general economics of the automobile market have not changed all that much.

There are the luxury models, expensive cars and reasonably priced ones. But a 'people's car', as one understands the term, has remained a myth. Thankfully so, the environmental lobby would say.

The vision of a billion people driving across the country could be an apocalyptic nightmare.

They can take some comfort from the past and the fate of some of the legendary predecessors of the Nano. To start with, there was Henry Ford's Model T, affectionately referred to as the Tin Lizzie.

The first assembly line car did sell by the thousands in the early part of the last century although not many of them were bought by the workers who made them as Ford had wanted. In due course, the Tin Lizzie gave way to sturdier, improved and retooled versions to compete with the flashier models from competitors.

So it is to the Nazis that we must give credit for thinking up the first 'people's car', as the German Volkswagen translates to. Just as Hitler was setting off on his famous annexations across Europe, he decided that every German or at least every German workman should own a car as in the US. 

The Fuehrer ordered Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche, who would become closely allied with his war effort, to design a 'car for the people' with special specifications.

The engine should be at the rear, it should sport a distinctly round shape (which gave it its nickname, Beetle), a cruise speed of 100 kmph and 26 hp air-cooled engine.

Thus came about the iconic Volkswagen Beetle that could be produced at 990 marks (equivalent to $396 at the official rate of exchange).

A massive factory, the biggest in the world, was set up, to turn out 1.5 million cars a year.

Part of the funding for this project came from the workers themselves. They were asked to contribute a minimum of five marks every week and once they had put in 750 marks, they would get an order number entitling the worker to a car as soon as it could be turned out.

But not a single was ever turned out. Says William Shirer, famous chronicler of the Third Reich: "Tens of millions of marks were paid in by the German wage earners, not a pfenning of which was ever refunded. By the time the war started, the Volkswagen factory turned to the manufacture of goods more useful to the Army."

The point here is that the Beetle's success was largely notched up in the US where Volkswagen sent the sturdier deluxe models, with more chrome and more options as the standard version.

In the US it became the symbol of the Bohemian counter-culture of the 1950s and early '60s and became the largest selling car. Factories in other parts of the world, for instance, continued to sell tonier versions of the Volkswagen but it was not marketed as a 'people's car'. That would have been déclassé.

This is a phrase which has a clear socialist ring to it and it's not surprising that the Soviet Union in its heyday produced its version of a 'people's car' -- the Zoporozhets.

The clunky car, which invited a series of unkind nicknames, was designed in 1958 to be the most affordable and sturdy car for ordinary people.

Sturdy because the roads were bad and there were no service centres and cheap enough to match the salaries of the working class.

Russian folklore has an amusing story about how the pricing formula was developed. Apparently, it was decided early on that the worthy Zoporozhets shouldn't cost more than a thousand bottles of vodka each.

In 1958, when it made its debut, a bottle of vodka cost 1.8 roubles and the first model of the car was priced at 1,800 roubles. Some years later, when the price of vodka rose to 2.2 roubles, the price of a Zaporozhets rose to 2,200 roubles, it is claimed.

The Nano, of course, is not priced so whimsically, but given the soaring costs of inputs it might find it difficult to remain the 'people's car' for long.

Besides, to reach the masses, we would need to create a true automobile economy: good roads and highways that call for a huge investment.

That's a long, long way off.