The Tata Nano car is one of the cheapest automobiles ever developed. In India, the price was reported to be equivalent to about 2500 American dollars. It is supposed to be introduced in the United States in the next two years.

However sales have dropped 85% in India since last year.

You see there have been a number of unexplained fires like the one above.

It has dampened enthusiasm for the vehicle considerably.

The U.S. model was to have cost more than double the Indian price because of the cost of meeting American safety standards. Perhaps those standards would have prevented this kind of incident but we may never know.

James Pilant