This tiny car will soon be ready for sale in India. The price tag? Just over 22 hundred dollars. "It never was conceived of as being the cheapest car, it was conceived of as being the car that would give people of India an opportunity to own a car that had not been within their reach before." The Nano will be sold by India's Tata Motors and hits showrooms in July.
The company is only guaranteeing a hundred-thousand cars at the current price. Tata Motors can only produce 50-thousand cars a year from its current manufacturing plant. When a new plant opens later this year, that number will grow ten-fold. And looking down the road, the company has already shown off a sturdier model for the European market..
The Nano was initially targeted at impoverished first-time car buyers in Asia and Africa. The global economic meltdown has amplified company chairman Ratan Tata's export ambitions. Extras like air conditioning and power windows will cost more. The Nano could have competition in as little as two years. Nissan, Renault and India's Bajaj auto plan a car that wholesales for 25-hundred dollars.
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conceive 생각하다, 상상하다, 계획하다
showroom 전시장
guarantee 보장하다, 보증하다
manufacture 생산하다
sturdy 튼튼한
initially 처음에는
impoverished 가난한
