Tata Nano to an opening hatch and even AMT. Launch in May

Tata had showcased the Nano Active and the Nano F-TRONIC at the 2014 Auto Expo. Now, the company will be launching the model year 2015 with both these upgrades. The Nano will have a hatch (that can be opened) and it will also get AMT (automated manual transmission) also.

The new model year Nano will get these updates and expect the Nano to also come with some changes on the inside. This year, Tata Motors had stopped the production of non power steering Nanos and now they will be adding a new variant to it. The F-TRONIC is the same as it was used on the Tata Zest. This will be the first petrol Tata to get an AMT. This will make Nano the most affordable car to get an AMT.

At the moment, Maruti Suzuki is offering this transmission on the Alto K10.

All these AMTs are manufactured by Magnetic Mirelli.

The Nano’s top-of-the-line trim already comes with features like electronic power steering, in-dash music system with Bluetooth connectivity, aux and USB inputs too. The Nano also gets DIS (sriver information system) like fuel efficiency, trips, etc which isn’t available on any other hatchbacks in the A segment.

With access to the boot from outside makes things a lot easier for easy storage and this should be offered across all variants as a standard feature. A 624cc twin-cylinder petrol engine powers the Nano producing about 37bhp of power.

This same engine will be powering the Nano AMT and it will get a five-speed box (the AMT). Expect the pricing of the Nano AMT to be about INR 3.3 lakhs on the road, after all the taxes.

A report from Gaadi suggests that the Nano will be called as Nano GenX and also that it will get creep function on the AMT. This means that the Nano will start moving the moment it is engaged into D, which hasn’t been the case with Zest.

In the Zest, one had to press the accelerator for the car to move.