The constant change that Tata Nano has been undergoing ever since its launch seems to have reached a culmination. Tata Motors' latest Nano, called the GenX Nano, comes with an automatic gearbox and an openable boot.
Although the industry has been abuzz with rumours of an automatic version of the Nano even before the official launch of the car, it took a few years for Tata Motors to bring in a timely makeover to its small car and also incorporate an automatic gear box in it. The latest version of Nano, GenX Nano, manages to squeeze out a few more kilometres per litre of fuel than its predecessor.
A lot of changes have been incorporated both outside and inside the car. The Nano now looks much better from the front, thanks to the newly designed bumper, headlamps and a small strip of plastic that compensates for the lack of a front grill for this rear-engine car. The new grill has rendered an upmarket look to the Nano and is a fitting reply to those who complained that the old rear-end grill looked out of fashion.
The fit finish inside the cabin has also improved substantially. Apart from better quality plastics, the GenX Nano comes with an easy-shift gear knob in an excellent finish and a high quality steering wheel seen in the Zest and other modern day Tata cars. The seats have been redesigned while their fabric quality has also improved. With the newly designed boot, the luggage capacity of the AMT version GenX Nano will be 94 litres while that of the manual version will be 110 litres.
But the engine remains the same and the two-cylinder 624-cc petrol unit continues to churn out a humble 38 bhp which is transmitted to the wheels through a four-speed gearbox. However, the engine has been re-tuned to deliver up to 21.90 kilometre/litre of petrol. In the automatic version of the Genx Nano, the gearbox features the familiar Magneti Marelli manual automatic unit that has proven its mettle in cars such as Maruti Celerio, Alto and Tata Zest.
The fuel tank capacity has been increased from 15 litres to 24 litres and the GenX Nano now comes with facilities such as music system with USB connectivity, central automatic locking, heater, bluetooth, aux, power steering and air conditioning.
Tata Motor expects to rewrite the future of small car business with GenX Nano. The company has come out with a "Power Of One Plus One" exchange scheme for existing Nano owners. Tata Motors is offering an exchange bonus of Rs 20,000 for old Nano owners who wish to upgrade to the GenX Nano. The company is also offering a reference bonus of Rs 5,000 to Nano owners who succeed in convincing their friends or relatives into buying the car.
The GenX version will be available in four versions namely XE, XM, XT, and XTA (AMT version).