Tata Nano recall for the retrofit after fire woes

Tata Motors has announced that it would retrofit all Nanos following its investigations into instances of the car going up in flames on the road. In August, a sixth incident of a Nano catching fire, since the car was commercially launched in March 2009, was reported from the National Capital. The five previous incidents were reported from across the country, including Mumbai, Lucknow, New Delhi and near Vadodara.

The company said it would provide “additional protection in the exhaust system and the electrical system” free of cost to make the car “ even more robust” but insisted that this did not amount to a recall of the vehicle.

In an apparently unrelated move, Titan Industries, also from the Tata group, announced in Chennai that it would design a bejewelled Nano car with designs in gold to celebrate 5,000 years of jewellery making in India.

The two announcements served to bring the spotlight back on the tiny Nano, which has created as much excitement as the world’s cheapest car as it has caused consternation with some half a dozen “ smoke and fire” incidents being reported.

Only last week, the Nano was admired by US President Barack Obama and the First Lady at the Taj Mahal hotel.

“ The Tata Nano is a safe car with a robust design, state- of- the- art components and built with an uncompromising attention to quality in all aspects. This has been re- established through a second analysis, conducted during the months of September and October 2010. Customers can rest assured that there are no generic defects in the Tata Nano,” Tata Motors said in a statement.

The company said an investigation by a team of internal and international experts “ once again concluded that the reasons for the incidents ( of fire) in few Tata Nano cars are specific to the cars which had such incidents.” “ There is no principle problem with the vehicle and the vehicle is of a safe design. We have however found mishaps in certain unusual circumstances,” Tata Motors said, and went to illustrate these as the catalytic converter catching fire when covered, say, with a newspaper.

The company said each owner of the Nano will be informed about the retrofit programme beginning third week of November. “ Option lies with our customers on whether they would like to avail of these measures. This will be provided at no cost to customers,” the company said.

“ The vehicle is safe and we have to make it a bit more robust against very unusual circumstances. That is currently underway,” the company added.