3 Nanos reportedly catch fire; Tata to do preemptive check

The Tata Nano, the small car priced at Rs 1 lakh, is in the news for the wrong reasons. Three incidents of the Nano catching a minor fire have been reported from across India. The cars were unoccupied at when the alleged mishaps took place and no casualties have been reported.

A Tata Nano caught fire in New Delhi on Tuesday and earlier in the month, two similar incidents had been reported. The Nanos have been reported to catch fire near the steering wheel area.

However, Debasis Ray, a Tata Motors spokesperson, said a short circuit had taken place in the combination switch area and played down the incident as a minor glitch.

“In the two cars that we have had access to, there was a minor short circuit in the combination switch area, which resulted in minor smoking and a localised meltdown of some of the fire-retardant plastic parts,” Ray said.

He added that the company had not had access to the Delhi car but had repaired the Ahmedabad car and returned it to the customer while the Lucknow car would be given back soon.

Ray, however, said that one could not say this was a generic trend in the Nanos and ruled out the possibility of a mass recall. Tata Motors has dispatched about 7,500 cars to customers.

“We are not considering a recall although a preemptive audit check may be carried out on cars that are yet to be handed over or those that are already with customers and report for regular service, purely as a precautionary measure,” he said.

Ray added that a reengineering in the Nano was uncalled for because the reported mishap had nothing to do with the vehicle’s design. “It is a short-circuit issue in the combination switch. So, if at all the combination switch needs to be looked at, nothing else,” he said, but admitted that such a problem had not been reported in any other Tata car.

Tata Motors would not slow down the Nano’s production, Ray said, because the incidents did not suggest a generic trend.

“We would like to say to our esteemed customers that once they hand the car back to us [in case of a mishap], we would rectify the problem and give it back to them and the car would give them as much joy as it has for the days that have run the car,” he said.

— With inputs from CNBC-TV18's Sumantra Barooah and Pranshu Sikka