Tata unveils Nano, the cheapest car

India's giant Tata Group has unveiled the world's cheapest car that auto analysts say could turn upside down the cost of vehicles globally.The long-awaited "People's Car", over which the company has thrown a shroud of secrecy, was slated to be unveiled in the auto show at Pragati Maidan by Ratan Tata, the 70-year-old tycoon who heads the tea-to-steel group. Tata, whom the Indian media have likened to US automobile pioneer Henry Ford, has said he hopes the ultra-cheap car will "make a contribution to making life safer" for Indian families who often travel four to a motorbike -- father driving, mother riding pillion and two children wedged in between. The car, expected to carry a sticker price as low as 2,500 dollars could "revolutionise car costs downward," said leading Indian car analyst Murad Ali Baig. It "is bound to be followed by other low-cost ones."The four-door five-seater rear-engined auto, described by those who have seen it as boasting "cute" looks, is targeted at drivers trading up to four wheels from two in India as a booming economy creates new affluence. The car on which Tata Motor engineers have cut costs to the bone has sparked a race among global automakers to come up with rock-bottom priced vehicles to appeal to this growing lucrative segment in India and other emerging markets.The lightweight car has only one windshield wiper instead of two, no power steering, no power windows and no air conditioning, according to media reports and company comments. Already Germany's Volkswagen, leading Indian motorbike maker Bajaj Auto and France's Renault and Ford among others have said they planning or mulling new cheap cars for India where small autos comprise two-thirds of annual passenger vehicle sales of one million in the country of 1.1 billion. India's biggest carmaker, Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki, has said it may cut the price of the Maruti 800, its most popular budget model that sells for 4,800 dollars -- the cheapest car now on the country's roads. Tata, which has been on an aggressive overseas expansion drive, is also expected to win its reported two-billion-dollar bid for the British Land Rover and Jaguar brands -- which would put it in the unusual position of making two prestige cars as well as the world's lowest-cost automobile. Environmentalists see clouds on the horizon if Tata's cheap car is a winner, fearing it will further jam up India's clogged roads and add to choking pollution. "With more cars you have more emissions and that adds to global warming -- what we need is public transport," said Souparno Banerjee, an official of Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment.But Tata says the car will create no more pollution than a motorbike. "If I can get a loan from my boss, I might buy the car so my family and I could travel, I can't take my mother on my motorcycle any more -- she's too old," said courier driver Daniel Abraham.