The sporty four-door, five-seater, unveiled last week by India's giant Tata Group to rave reviews from industry watchers, is expected to hit the roads around October for just 100,000 rupees (2,500 dollars), plus tax.

"You've got nine percent economic growth, rising incomes, a young population with car-owning aspirations and this car that will be affordable to so many more people," Dilip Chenoy of the Society of Indian Automobiles said.

The Nano car -- so named because it connotes high tech and small size -- is aimed mainly at millions of consumers in India and elsewhere who aren't middle class by Western standards but no longer at the bottom of the pyramid.

Indian rating agency Crisil says the Nano will cut the cost of entry level car ownership in India by a hefty 30 percent.

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, who spearheaded the Nano's development as a way to get India's masses off motorbikes and into safer cars, is being likened by the country's media to Henry Ford who revolutionised the US car market with the Model T.

"The new price point translates into a 65 percent increase in the number of families that can afford a car," said Crisil.

Around 1.4 million passenger vehicles were sold last year of which more than two-thirds were small cars.

Global automakers are already going into overdrive to make inroads into India's small-car market and also turn India with its low wages and skilled labour into an export hub.

Among the entrants are South Korea's Hyundai, Japan's Honda, France's Renault, Germany's Volkswagen and Ford.

"Every global player is in India in some form," said Yezdi Nagporewalla, a director at global consultancy KPMG.

But their planned small car sticker prices are higher, ranging up to 400,000 rupees and more. The Nano's nearest current rival on Indian roads is the Maruti 800, owned by Japan's Suzuki, that costs twice as much.

The Nano's launch, by hammering down costs through design innovation, has shifted the goal posts and "could revolutionise auto prices downward," said auto analyst Murad Ali Baig.

"This launch will prompt product developments in the mini car category by other players in the passenger vehicle segment," forecast industry body Assocham.

"These launches will (also) attract a section of existing two-wheeler owners -- currently nearly 50 million -- to upgrade to a car."

Medical salesman Akshaye Mitra is among them.

"I know a motorcycle isn't a safe way for me to travel with my family, a car would be much better," said the father of one.

The Tata chief, a Cornell architect graduate, said he began thinking about an ultra-cheap car when he saw a poor family on a two-wheeler -- "the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby."

He decided to create a safer vehicle they could afford and the company came up with the Nano.

The basic model has a manual transmission and no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering, although two deluxe versions will be available with such features.

It has a two-cylinder 623 cc, rear-mounted engine with a top speed of 105 kilometres (65 miles) an hour and gets 20 kilometres to the litre or 50 miles to the gallon and meets emission requirements in India and abroad.

There have been no test drives yet by car experts.

But Autocar India editor Hormazd Sorabjee rates the vehicle -- which defied pre-launch predictions it would be little more than a motorised bullock cart -- "10 out of 10" for looks.

Dealers, ironically, now are also being flooded with inquiries from people totally different from those Tata said he aimed to attract -- upper income buyers who see it as a perfect city runabout.

"It'd be great for us, for the kids to go to school, it's small, easy to park, low on petrol," said lawyer Aishwarya Singh. "It's functional and cheap -- but doesn't look it."

Environmentalists fear global warming disaster if Indians fall in love with the car as much as people in the West did.

Car penetration is just seven per 1,000 people compared to 550 per 1,000 in countries such as Germany.

Tata says he recognises the concern and believes "India desperately needs a mass transit system" but also asked "should (ordinary Indians) be denied the right to individual forms of transport, the right to safety?"

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