The diesel variant of the Tata Nano has to be among the most awaited car launches of recent times. While the car won’t enter the highly competitive small car market of India before 2014, speculations regarding to car have already been abounding in the cyber space. Concrete details about the diesel engine of the Nano D have now emerged on the cyber space. The diesel variant of the Nano would sport an 800cc twin cylinder engine that will feature a Garrett turbocharger. It may be noted that Garrett is now a part of the Honeywell group.
The engine that would power the Nano diesel will be a retuned version of the engine that is on duty in the Tata Ace DICOR. This diesel engine is a common rail direct injection unit that will have a max power of 40 bhp@ 4,000 rpm and peak torque of 60 Nm.
This means that the Nano diesel would be sufficiently powerful for occasional high speed runs. The diesel engine is being expected to offer a fuel economy of as high as 30 Kmpl!! Combined with the lower price of diesel, the Nano would have unbeatably low running costs. The entry level variant of the Nano diesel is expected to be priced at INR 2.5 lakhs.
The Nano diesel would become the world’s least priced diesel car. The Nano diesel will be introduced in our car market only after the launch of the CNG version and the facelift.
It would be interesting to see if the diesel variant would enable Nano in having a better showing on the sales charts. It would also be interesting to see how manufacturers of other entry level hatchbacks react to the launch of the Nano diesel.