System level Design

Tata currently has a product portfolio of about 10 cars – ranging from Hatchbacks to full size
SUV’s. Its most notable corporate a quisiton is Jaguar – Land Rover. In 2009 the Launch of the
Tata Nano in the Indian Market made international news. What was it that caught the
imagination of the world? It wasn’t just the fact that it was the cheapest car at USD 2500 but also
that it was as normal a car as could be. In fact the press even called it ‘cute’. With the Nano
comes the promise of mobility to millions who previously couldn’t have dreamt of buying a new
car. The Nano means freedom and empowerment for Indian people caught between inadequate
public transport and expensive private transportation.

Development Sketch work for the Nano began around 2003, with basic packaging hardpoints set
around 2005. The Company’s vision of the Nano was such that it had to serve the masses. A
safe, durable car, and not a glorified quad ricycle . Ratan Tata, the Chairman of the Tata Group
took personal interest in this project as it was a long dreamt vision of his. The idea for the Nano
was borne out of the desperate need for a safer personal transport solution for families consisting
of 3-4 members who commute astride a scooter (which costs about USD 1250) – a common sight
in Asia.

What makes the Nano’s design surprising is that it costs so less. While the Nano could be called
contemporary, it is not at the expense of practicality, something that the reborn Mini’s and Fiat
500’s of today can’t boast of. When the Justin Norek designed Nano’s first hit the road, they
turned more heads than a supercar. Yes, there was a novelty factor thanks to the unprecedented
media coverage. The smiley face, the soft ‘eyes’ and the arch shaped roof give it a charming
demeanour.
The side profile is basically mono volume and looks ovoid shaped and streamlined. The car
basically derieves its packaging philosophy from Japanese Kei – cars like Suzuki wagon R and
Mitsubishi I-Meiv. These cars cleverly utilize extra height in conjunction with a small footprint
to provide interior spaciousness. The high set h-point make the passengers sit in an upright
postiton which frees up space. The Nano has a tipped forward stance with all indexig lines
converging to the front. Classical golden proportioning has been used for DLO to height ratio.
The car has excellent ramp angles owing to the very short overhangs. Ground clearance too at
180mm is above average, which is good for Indian driving conditions. The car appears taller
than it actually is due to the high waistline and very little tumble home, although a generous
tuck-under helps reduce the visual weight in the space between the tiny 12 inch front and rear
wheels. At the rear, the sporty theme continues in the meshed part of the bumper with an
inverted ‘V’ cut in the centre for the centrally mounted exhaust.

The waistline and DLO have a consistent base line all around the car. The sides feature two
distinct feature lines. The subtle upper line aids in breaking the lower and upper halves, and runs
almost parallel to the waistline. It also serves as a light catcher. The lower line is more
sculptural and tapers upwards just before the rear wheel arch. The air scoops which function as
air intakes for the rear engine look well resolved and add a touch of sportiness. The sill-line cuts
deep into the body and catches the sky light, adding to the visual interest created by the air
intake. The vertical tail lamps have the Tata design stamp on them, but the way they wraparound
to the side of the car appears to be weakly resolved. The design team, both engineers and sylists
did not resort to the easier option of flat metal sheets to save costs but took the braver road of
designing an inexpensive car that is actually desirable. Severe Production costing means that
there are no concave surfaces at the front and rear, which would have helped avoid its square
corners and lack of plan shape at the ends of the car. The front end graphics have a cheerful look
with cartoon character like eyes. The upper mask seems like it is missing something as there is
no upper grille. The shut lines link together the simple surface elements and make the design
appear cohesive. The lower mask looks a little tacky and disjointed.

On either side of the central console are two cleverly designed scooped out sections. Instead of a
regular dash top that has little functional value, you can throw all sorts of stuff into these large
bowl – like cradles. Most of the details on the Nano are born out of functional needs. The higher
end models feature creature comforts like power windows, air-conditioning etc. Tata filed 34
patents related to design innovations in the Nano, which goes to show the deep thought and
investment put into the design of this car.

Detail design

At this moment, a fair amount of information on how the Nano was brought to its intended price
tag without compromising its design brief - 'a proper car' - is yet to be announced. But here is
what we do know.

1. ECU

The ECU, or engine control unit, is a central part of any modern day motor. It is in effect a small
computer that controls all aspects of engine operation. Given the sheer complexity of even the
simplest engines, they can be expensive. The complexity is not inherent, it is needed because an
engine today must satisfy emissions norms, sound norms, produce an acceptable spread of
power, return an acceptable level of economy and still more. This complexity makes it crucial
and in the case of the Nano, expensive. However, Tata worked with Bosch to take the ECU down
to an unprecedented price. Among the solutions employed, is the fact that the sensors used by the
ECU to govern the engine are down to half the usual number. And from what we hear on the
Nanos testing in and around Pune, the engine works perfectly.

2.Wiper
Sometimes it's in the details. Ratan Tata's direction to the designers at IDea - to reduce the wiper
count to one has been well-publicised. The usual subtext was that it neatened up the car's looks.
While true, it's a part of the cost-conscious design that's ensured that careful design ensures
lower costs without compromising useability.

3.Small wheels and Mounting

The Nano's cuteness is in part due to the tiny wheels it rolls on. These aren't incidental either.
The Nano was carefully designed to use these. Small wheels are lighter, which positively impacts
economy, performance and ride quality. Further, these wheels were mounted with only three
lugs, again, keeping costs in mind while examining and improving decisions that have become
automatic in car design. The small wheels and the light weight have also ensured that power
steering will probably not be missed in the car - again, this saves cost and complexity. Further,
the design team split the tyre sizes to give the front a slightly thinner spec, while keeping the
driven wheels fatter. This balances the impact of the wider track at the front, and in driving terms
should endow the car with mild understeer at the limit - which is a safety feature. If Tata hadn't
planned for the understeer you would probably have got a car like the early Porsches which had a
rearward weight bias that resulted in their famously snap oversteer characteristics. In simpler
terms, the Nano has a rearward weight bias due to the engine. This, on its own, can be a problem
when taking corners at speed, where the rear end starts to behave sort of like a pendulum,
dragging the car off the line. The engineered understeer counteracts this and should produce,
depending on how good the design is, a balanced, neutral car. And lest we forget, smaller tyres
mean less rubber, so they should be cheaper as well.

4. Light body

The extremely light body weight indications suggest that Tata found some sort of format that
allows the upper monocoque to remain pretty light without compromising the chassis rigidity.
What is already known is that the Nano uses a light gauge metal body and the production process
will aim for minimum wastage.

5. Engine foemet/placement

The four-stroke parallel twin 624cc engine has been the source of most of Tata's patents that
come from the Nano project. The single-counterbalancer equipped motor is being labelled as a
world first for a car application. The engine is fuel-injected, of course, and we expect the final
spec to show that it is a two-valve single overhead cam design. But it wasn't the engine alone
that's worthy of being mentioned. It's how Tata have mounted it. The rear-engine configuration
isn't new, but to be honest, not many manufacturers have tried it recently. When Volkswagen
announced the Up, they planned a rear-engine format as well because of its cost implications.
The Up is front-engined now only because VW found it hard to engineer given that all of its
other cars were in that format - which makes it most cost-effective to engineer. If it wasn't for
that legacy, VW's Up would be rear-engined too.

Tata doesn't have those legacy issues. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive format, at the most
obvious eliminates the driveshaft and saves some money. But in the Nano's case, it's the
packaging that's stunning. As you saw in the Auto Expo, aside from the air intakes ahead of the
rear wheel arches, there's almost no indication as to where the engine is. This is because the
motor is behind and under the rear seats. The hatch does not open - more on that in a bit - and the
engine is accessed by flipping the rear seats forward. The hard to access format suggests that
Tata have produced an engine that is pretty reliable. But more importantly, it's non-intrusion into
the passenger cabin is part of the slew of solutions that liberate what Tata is calling generous
interior space - 21 per cent more than the Maruti 800!

6. Central instruments and dashboard

While it just looks quirky and cute at first glance, the central meters and the dash on the Nano are
actually a rather clever piece of kit. First of all, a central meter set eliminates the need to adapt
that large plastic assembly for right- and left-hand drive markets. Tata will offer a speedometer,
odometer and a digital fuel gauge plus lights that are spartan, but complete instrumentation. But
most importantly, the smoothly curved design, two huge cubby holes ensure that the cabin gets
an airy feel, lots of storage and almost no one notices that there isn't a glove box at all. Neat, eh?
The curved edges should also have a role to play in crash safety.

7. Filler cap and single mirror

The filler cap is actually located under the nose. It might be a little inconvenient to fill up, then,
but remember, many people who drive CNG and LPG cars already do this. But on the cost front,
this means that body does not need to a hole in it at someplace for the filler cap. Tata will
probably also not offer a standard left side mirror - we've never seen a car with it so far, not at
the Expo, nor among the various test pieces running around Pune - which is another cost saving.
It will be an optional extra should you really want it - and you should - but for a car this cheap,
this is not an unreasonable compromise. After all, there are cars relatively more expensive that
don't have it as standard either, right?

Testing and refinement

“Prototyping with Model-Based Design proved essential. With an integrated platform for
modeling, simulation, and testing, we could rapidly make changes and predict how the whole
system would react before it was built. This early insight shaped the design of the controller,
engine, and Nano itself.” —S Govindarajan, Tata Motors

open circuits for sensors and actuators, and unexpected resets of the ECU. Simulations and HIL
tests enabled Tata Motors to evaluate engine capacity, torque output, and the electrical
architecture. These early assessments were vital because the team had no benchmark vehicle to
verify design feasibility. Following HIL tests, the team deployed the control algorithms to its
fleet of prototype Nanos using an on-target rapid prototyping ECU. The engineers performed
rapid iterations in which they refined the Simulink model to resolve issues revealed by testing
before regenerating the software. After verifying the requirements in prototype Nanos, Tata
Motors provided detailed requirements for the EMS and selected the supplier. Tata Motors and
the supplier jointly created the production version. The production EMS design surpasses all key
goals for safety, cost, and fuel efficiency, and meets India’s stringent Bharat Stage IV emissions
standards. Based on the success of the Nano project, Tata engineers have expanded the scope of
embedded software development using Embedded Coder™ for production code generation.

Two costly sensors eliminated.

“Through our simulations in Simulink, we identified two sensors that we could replace with
embedded software functionality,” says Sarkar. “We replaced the CAM sensor and the knock
sensor with software functions and calibrations, saving the cost of the sensors and their wiring
harnesses.

” Validation cycle time reduced from weeks to hours

. “When we began the software design there were many unknowns, so we needed numerous
design iterations,” says Sarkar. “We accelerated this process by modeling and simulating in
Simulink and generating code with Simulink Coder. Validation of each software release, which
can take weeks with a conventional approach, was completed in about half a day.”

Prototype designed and requirements proved before supplier selection.

“ModelBased Design enabled us to develop the complete EMS prototype ourselves,” notes
Govindarajan. “Our development skills and the knowledge we gained about the EMS helped
Tata Motors negotiate and collaborate more effectively with our suppliers. By demonstrating a
prototype working on a Nano with no problems, we reduced the risk for both Tata and our
supplier.”

Production ramp-up

Tata's Sanand plant rides on Tiago, Tigor; looks to ramp up production

Having achieved rigorous cost-reduction targets and high-production standards, Tata Motors is
working to develop Sanand as a centre of manufacturing excellence over the next two years

Tata Nano may have failed, but the Sanand factory that gave birth to the fabled small car is
gearing up for second innings on the back of the success of Tiago and Tigor models.Hitching a
ride back on these models in India’s competitive passenger vehicle market, Tata Motors is
looking to ramp up production at the facility by 25 per cent to 150,000 units per annum, even as
it remains non-committal to the fate of Nano, which made Sanand transform into a flourishing
auto cluster.Helped by manufacturing improvement and operational efficiency measures, the
factory has been able to steadily enhance the output. It has increased the cumulative production
from 10 billion in September 2011 to 20 billion in October 2013, and 30 billion in June 2017 to
40 billion in January 2018. It now plans to increase it to 50 billion by October 2018.

From 205 vehicles per day capacity in FY 2017, the plant can now churn 450 vehicles a day, and
targets 500 vehicles per day by the end of FY 2018-19. It has also managed to reduce the
variable conversion cost from 30 per cent in FY17 to 60 per cent now, said Mayank Pareek,
president, passenger vehicle business unit at Tata Motors.

Tata Motors plans to roll out 10-12 PVs on Omega, Alpha platforms in 5 yrs

“Turnaround 2.0 is about focused effort on passenger vehicle business,” said Pareek, adding it
was based on the three pillars — sales enhancement through new product launches, cost
reduction and growing operating efficiencies.

The factory on the outskirts of Gujarat, which accounts for 60 per cent cars Tata
Motors produces, will play a crucial role in the business objectives .Having achieved rigorous
cost-reduction targets and high-production standards, Tata Motors is working to develop Sanand
as a centre of manufacturing excellence over the next two years. The facility that produces the
electric version of the Tigor will serve as the hub for electric vehicles for Tata Motors.Based on
the Omega and Alpha platforms, the Tata Group flagship plans to launch 10-12 new brands over
the next three to four years, said Pareek. This will help the firm address 90 per cent of the
passenger vehicle market, he added.The firm also plans to steadily increase the number of
dealerships from the current 787 to over 850 by the turn of the ongoing fiscal, take it up further
to 2,000 over the next three to four years, said Pareek. These will not be traditional dealerships
but digitally equipped showrooms with virtual showrooms. A plan of being able to offer service
for passenger vehicles every half kilometre and getting all the service mechanics on a
technology platform is also in the works, he added..