By Arun Kumar
Washington, Dec 12 (IANS) The Tata Nano, designed to be the world’s most affordable car, will be on view at prestigious Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York’s from Feb 18 through April 25 next year.

A bright, sunshine yellow Nano, built by Indian auto major Tata Motors, will be on display in Cooper-Hewitt’s Great Hall, along with diagrams and a short film describing its concept, development and production, the Smithsonian Institution announced Friday.

The name “Nano” connotes high technology, small size and low price, it said, noting Tata Motors is currently developing versions of the Nano for European and American markets.

This ultra-cheap compact car contributes to the world of affordable motoring, and like its predecessors, Henry Ford’s Model T, the Volkswagen Beetle, Citroen 2CV and the original Fiat 500, the Tata Nano continues the tradition of inexpensive cars made in large numbers, it said.

“Cooper-Hewitt’s mission is to present the very latest developments in design and technology and the Tata Nano

introduces more families in India to the new world of affordable and safer mobility,” said Cara McCarty, curatorial director of the museum.

“We’re eager to display the Tata Nano at the museum, where many visitors will see it for the first time.”

Unveiled last year in India, the Tata Nano is targeted to families who had not previously been able to afford a car.

Billed as “the people’s car,” the base model starts at $2,200 in India and can accommodate up to five adults.

Conceived by Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, the Tata Nano is intended as an all-weather form of personal

transportation that provides a safer and cleaner alternative to the two-wheelers that are pervasive in India, where often entire families ride clinging to a motorbike or a scooter.

The Nano offers a high fuel efficiency of 50 miles per gallon, making it more fuel efficient and less polluting than all other cars on the road today in India, the Smithsonian noted.

Designed by a team of 500 Indian engineers, the 35-horsepower, four-door vehicle has been pared down to the essentials: It is about10 feet long, weighs approximately 1,300 pounds, has an all-sheet-metal body, a rear two-cylinder engine, small tubeless tires, a reinforced passenger compartment, crumple zones, seat belts and achieves a top speed of 65 miles per hour.

To allay concerns about safety, the car passed a roll-over test and offset impact, which are not regulated in India. Its barebones design, as of now, does not include more costly features such as power steering, air bags, antilock brakes or an exterior left passenger-side mirror, which are not mandatory in India, it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)