Indians use cars too big by size for moving a single person and the fate met by Tata Nano was unfortunate, Mahindra & Mahindra MD Pawan Goenka said.
He also conceded the automobile industry did add to pollution and pitched for adopting means to reduce it.
The Tatas had discontinued Nano after a poor response to the 600-cc ₹1-lakh car. Many experts had blamed its utilitarian product pitch in a country where owning a car was seen as a lifestyle necessity as the reason for the failure.
“It is very unfortunate that the Nano didn’t do very well,” Mr. Goenka said, speaking at an alumni event organised by his alma mater IIT-Kanpur here.
He said Indians, weighing 65-70 kg, use an entire 1,500 kg car to travel individually, hinting at the wastage of resources that go into making the big car move.
“We need to have personal transport that is more tuned to moving a single person,” he said.
Keeping the same requirement in mind, Mr. Goenka said his company had launched a smaller car, which should be hitting the market soon.
He also acknowledged that automobiles at present contributed 7% of the carbon dioxide and a fifth of particulate matter, PM 2.5, and every effort should be made to reduce the impact.
Connected cars
He also said India can lead the race in connected cars due to its prowess on the information technology front.
There is ‘a lot of work’ happening in electric vehicles as well with start-ups dedicated to niche areas such as batteries, charging infrastructure, two-wheelers and three-wheelers mushrooming, he said.
He added the manufacturing sector had to contribute $1 trillion if the economy were to grow to $5 trillion.
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