In the words of Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Motors Limited, India's "People's Car" will be a safe, affordable¹, all weather vehicle for a family which is today traveling on a two wheeler. The entry level model is ticketed at just over $2，500-or the equivalent of 100，000 rupees or one Lakh -a revolutionary price where the average lower middle class income is $200 a month. (For comparison's sake, in the early 1970s, Honda introduced affordable, good quality Civics at about $2,200, which adjusted for inflation would now be nearly $10,500.) It could well be one of the most important cars ever designed.

用印度塔塔公司总裁拉丹·塔塔的话说，印度"普通人的车"是"安全、经济、所有天气都适合开"的家用汽车，而现在大部分家庭还在使用二轮车。基本款的售价是2500美元，相当于 10万卢比。这是一种改革性的价格，平均中下层收入每月只有 200美元。为了比较起见，在70年代初，本田推出 2200美元的经济款汽车，调整通货膨胀差值，折合成现在近10500美元。)它将会是所有最重要汽车中的一款。

The car emerged at a much -anticipated launch on Thursday: a cute, short thing, with four doors, tiny wheels placed out at the far corners of the body and what looked like plenty of room inside. The Nano has just enough space for a briefcase² or small bag under the hood³. The engine -all two cylinders⁴, 624cc and 33 horsepower of it . is in the back, just like the Volkswagen Beetle⁵ of old. The speedometer and other instruments cluster in a central pod in the middle of the dashboard rather than directly in front of the driver, the easier (and cheaper) to offer both left-and right-hand versions when Tata Motors starts exporting the car to Southeast Asia and Africa in a couple of years. It has a top speed of about 60 miles per hour. "Car companies are in probably the most emotive business area that one can find apart from fashion ," company chairman Ratan Tata told TIME a day before the big launch. "There will be people who say it looks like a toy, but if you consider the value proposition 1think the car is great."

周四，此款车在万众期待的发行会上亮相。它可爱、小巧，有四个开门，车身两边有小轮子，看上去里面有不少空间。Nano的车篷下有足够的空间放公文包或小袋子。此车的引擎安装在后面，有两个汽缸，624毫升， 33马力，像老大众甲壳虫。速度计和其他器材安装在仪表板的中间，而不是直接在驾驶者面前，更容易(更便宜)同时提供左、右手的启动。这些年塔塔汽车公司开始向东南亚和非洲出口汽车。它拥有大约每小时60英里的最高速度。"人们可以发现，汽车公司可能是除了时尚业最情绪化的业务领域公司总裁拉丹·塔塔在发行会前一天受时代周刊采访时说。"有人会说这看起来像一个玩具，但如果你考虑到价值定位，我认为这款车是优秀的。"

Tata hopes the Nano will help millions of poor people around the world -the "Bottom of the pyramid" in developing world marketing-speak -switch from two wheels to four. Environmentalists, city planners and even some competitors, on the other hand, warn that the new vehicle will clog⁶ up India's crowded roads and add clouds of pollution to its already filthy⁷ air.

塔塔希望Nano可以造福世界各地千百万的穷人，他们在发展中的世界营销手段中被称为"金字塔的底层勺，从两个轮子变成四个轮子。环保人士、城市规划者，甚至一些竞争对手，却批评说，印度道路已经够塞车的了， Nano出现后，塞车必定恶化，空气污染也会更严重。拉丹·塔塔强调，新型汽车符合印度的排放规定，甚至比欧洲4号更标准。

Ratan Tata emphasized that the new car complies with India's emissions⁸ laws and even with Europe's much stronger Euro 4 standards. Emissions, Tata says, are "lower than a scooter's today". The company claims the car will also deliver 50 miles per gallon, or better than 20 kilometers per liter, which would make it one of India' s most efticient vehicles, and vastly more efticient than the average in the U.S. Chief U.N. climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with AI Gore⁹, said recently that he was "having nightmares" about the low-cost car. "Or. Pachauri need not have nightmares," said Ratan Tata at today's unveiling. "For us it's a milestone¹⁰ and I hope we can make a contribution to the country."

塔塔公司称，这款车的排量比摩托车还低。塔塔公司称该车每跑50英里用一加仑汽油，或更节省每20公里用一升。这将是印度最省油的汽车。和阿尔·戈尔一同荣获诺贝尔和平奖的联合国首席气候学家拉金德拉·帕乔里说，他最近总是做关于低成本汽车的"噩梦"。在今天的揭幕仪式上拉丹·塔塔说"帕乔里博士不用做恶梦。对于我们来说这是一个里程碑，我希望我们能为国家作出贡献。"

But with India's road infrastructure¹¹ struggling to keep up with explosive growth in car sales, won't the new Tata just add to the country's road hassles? That's a problem the Indian government has to deal with, not manufacturers, Tata said. "We' d certainly be concerned if our vehicle created absolute chaos¹²' all across India," he told one questioner who complained that his morning journey of a few miles across Delhi took over an hour. "But if you had chaos today and it did not include our vehicles, then I would suggest the problem has to do with something else besides the presence or absence of our vehicles." India, he agreed, "does desperately¹³ need mass transit¹⁴ systems... both within cities and between cities." But poor Indian families also have a right to what millions take for granted elsewhere in the world. "Should they be denied the right to independent transport?"

但是，印度的道路基础设施建设努力跟上汽车销量爆炸性增长的步伐，新型的塔塔汽车就不会增加国家的公路拥挤了吗?这是印度政府需要解决的问题，而不是 一名记者抱怨，早晨穿过德里城只有几英里的路程却花了一个小时。塔塔说:"如果我们的汽车使印度的交通完全混乱，我们当然会担心。""但如果今天堵车，其中并没有我们的车。那么无论有没有我们的车，问题都需要解决。"他认为"印度，不论是城市里和城市之间都需要集体运输系统。"但是贫穷的印度家庭理所当然和世界其他国家人一样享有权利。"他们应该被剥夺了独立运输的权利吗? "

Eventually, Tata Motors hopes to sell a million Nanos a year. Even before it goes on sale, though, it has become an important symbol of an emerging trend in the developing world, a new brand of innovation that makes more out of less and engineers clever but cheap fixes to problems that Western companies might throw expensive technology at.

最后，塔塔公司希望一年销售一百万辆Nano。即使在它出售之前，它就已成为发展中世界一个新趋势的象征。创新的新品牌可以提高效率，西方公司可能会用昂贵的技术解决的问题，廉价的新品牌仍可以解决。

The head of the Nano team says Tata Motors has applied¹⁵ for 34 patents on various components¹⁶ and design features on the new car, though he was short on specifics. The car reportedly uses super strong glue rather than welds in some joints¹⁷ -a technique that a handful of other car makers¹⁸ have used before, though perhaps never as extensively. Tata Motors' cost-cutting drive was relentless¹⁹: the steel, rubber and other inputs²⁰ in the past few years, it's possible that the entry level Nano might not break even, though Tata made a point of saying the "one lakh" price tag in India will stay because "a promise is a promise". Ratan Tata said.

Nano团队负责人说，塔塔汽车公司已经申请了新型车34个不同的组件和功能的设计专利，但他未透漏具体细节。据报道，这款车在一些连接处使用超强力胶水而不是焊接，这是其他一些汽车制造商曾经用过的技术，但并没有广泛的应用。塔塔汽车公司苛刻的削减成本:挡风玻璃上只有一个雨刷，为节约钢材未设置金属转向柱，使用更便宜的轴承。拉丹·塔塔说，由于过去几年钢铁、橡胶和其他材料成本增加，但Nano的售价可能不会改变，塔塔公司承诺在印度"一万卢比"的价格将不变，因为"一诺千金"。