Tata Motors has decided against using a two cylinder 800 cc diesel engine in the Nano in the near future due to issues related to “refinement and economics”.
Girish Wagh, senior vice president (programme, planning & project management, passenger vehicles) at Tata Motors said: “The reason is that as we stand now, refinement is a challenge and what refinement can be given on this kind of a car (Nano) won’t be acceptable to the Indian customer. We need to do significant amount of work on improving the refinement.
“Economics is also a challenge… When diesel price comes to its natural level, all the price advantage will go. Although it has higher fuel efficiency, meeting higher emission norms in diesel is more costly… Therefore, below a particular price level, diesel making economic sense both for the customer and the OEM is very difficult,” Wagh said.
“We assessed the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) level of this engine and how it will perform on the car. We thought that the kind of refinement levels that the (car) customers are now expecting, they won’t accept the refinement which the two cylinder diesel can produce,” he added, ET Auto.com reported, citing PTI.
