The world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano, has proved itself to be as innovative as its makers intended it to be. One more milestone in the Nano’s brief but eventful journey so far has confirmed that this no frills, small car paradigm-shifter is not just the cleanest automobile in the country from a tail-pipe emissions perspective but it has also been proven that low cost doesn’t come at the cost of in-built safety.
Proof of this came in the course of a crash test conducted, not at the firm’s renowned Engineering Research Centre (ERC) in Pune (which has the country’s first and probably the best crash test facility), but the crash certification facilities at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) in the UK. Tata Motors in the course of its extensive development programme in India had already subjected the Nano’s structure to both computer analysis and crash simulations along with actual crash testing of various prototypes before signing off the car for final production. The Nano already confirms to Indian crash worthiness regulations having been subjected to the 48km/h full frontal impact test, the static door crush test and also the roof crush test. The test at the MIRA was done to validate Tata Motors’ efforts to be in line with current European legislation what with the firm’s avowed intent to market the Nano Europa on the continent within the next two to three years. The crash test results for the Nano proved that it has met the current European 56km/h full frontal and side-impact crash tests including an offset-collision test, norms which would also be applicable in India by 2012. What is impressive nonetheless is that the basis of the structure being safe and sound has been validated in an emphatic manner and as we have come to understand most of the additional modifications done to the BIW (body-in-white) for this test would also manifest themselves on the production Nanos rolling out both from Pantnagar now and shortly from Sanand. ZigWheels has learnt that for the test at the MIRA, the Nano had a few critical modifications made specifically to meet the Euro test norms. The front longitudinal structure was reinforced with added support both behind the bumper and also at the firewall.
The lessons learnt from these modifications and the way the Nano behaved in the course of the test should provide the firm’s engineers a better understanding of what needs to be done when the Nano is put through the even more stringent Euro NCAP crash tests. For the record, Tata Motors is confident that given its computational skills and the adoption of many more safety features, the Nano Europa could be aiming at a 4-star rating which for a car of its size, cabin space and price is a pretty telling indicator of the engineering capability of the firm.
