The Tata Nano is a rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by Tata Motors, aimed primarily at the Indian market. The car has a fuel efficiency of around 26 kilometres per litre (73 mpg-imp; 61 mpg-US) on the highway and around 22 kilometres per litre (62 mpg-imp; 52 mpg-US) in the city. It was first presented at the 9th annual Auto Expo on January 10, 2008, at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi,India. Nano had a commercial launch on March 23, 2009 and a booking period from April 9 to April 25, generating more than 200,000 bookings for the car. The cars started to be delivered to customers after July 17 2009, with a starting price of Rs 100,000, which is approximately equal to UK£1,360 or US$2,160 as of December 2009. This is cheaper than the Maruti 800, its main competitor and next cheapest Indian car priced at Rs 184,641 ($3,988 U.S.). Tata had sought to produce the least expensive production car in the world — aiming for a starting price of Rs 100,000 (approximately US$2,000 as of June 2009).
In early 2008 the news magazine Newsweek identified the Nano as a part of a "new breed of 21st-century cars" that embody "a contrarian philosophy of smaller, lighter, cheaper" and portend a new era in inexpensive personal transportation — and potentially, "global gridlock". The Wall Street Journal confirmed a global trend toward small cars, which includes the Nano.
"Nano" means "small" in Gujarati, the language of the founders of the Tata Group. "Nano" from the SI prefix for one-billionth is derived from the Greek νᾶνος, meaning dwarf, and is sometimes used to mean "small" in colloquial English.
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