Nano turns heads at Detroit Auto Show

NEW WONDER: The Tata Nano has created quite a buzz at the Detroit Auto Show.

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Keywords: Mercedes-Benz, Smart ForTwo

Detroit: It's smaller than the Tata Nano but fully-loaded with performance and safety features and costs about six times as much.

The Smart ForTwo, part of the Mercedes-Benz stable, is the kind of small car that could sell in the West. A decade after hitting the roads in Europe, the car is on display at the Detroit Auto Show as it gets ready for its American launch this year. So what's the Smart think on Nano?

"It's (Nano) fulfilling a very basic need of transportation, completely stripped. So the vehicle concepts are not comparable," Smart's Head of Global Marketing & Sales Anders Jensen says.

But the Nano is making heads turn. Even the world's biggest automaker is paying a close attention to the new people's car.

The Tata Nano has created quite a buzz at the Detroit Auto Show. And while it's clear that the Americans are not quite ready to drive a car like that yet, it's equally clear the Nano could change the way Detroit does business in many parts of the world.

"We need to have a very cost-efficient vehicle. Whether you know, the tradeoffs to get to $2,500 are exactly the sweet spot - we'll see. But it's a part of the market, where frankly, we have quite a bit of experience and we're anxious to see how that specific initiative goes in India," General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner says.

The Tata Nano may not be a direct competitor to cars in America. But with Detroit's automakers planning to expand in emerging markets, industry experts agree that the Nano will give them a run for their money.

"There's no question. It's going to be a difficult challenge for them, because they haven't been historically set up to do that. They don't really have the infrastructure in place to go that low in terms of price point," Erich J Merkle, and auto industry analyst, points out.