Tata Motors, India’s largest auto company, unveiled the world’s cheapest car today, at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi. The ultra-compact Tata Nano, also dubbed the “People’s Car”, carries a price tag of $2,500, and will be sold exclusively in India (although the company does plan to export the model in the future). The Nano is powered by a two-cylinder engine, seats four passengers, and according to Tata, is more environmentally friendly than many of the two-wheelers that crowd India’s streets today. In fact, two-wheelers partly served as the inspiration behind the Nano. Ratan N. Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Motors, observed entire Indian families (mom, dad, young child and baby) crammed onto two-wheelers, and wanted to develop a cheaper and safer alternative for families like these to get around in. While there is no exact launch date at the moment, the Nano will officially go on sale sometime later in the year.

The “People’s Car” is one of the latest products to emerge on the market that is largely intended to meet the needs of those living within developing countries - just a few months ago we saw the launch of the “$100 Laptop” (see: One Laptop Per Child). While projects like these do have some trouble catching on initially, I’m still pretty certain that we’ll continue to see more of them come along in the near future.

[photo via NYT]