The Nano, the world’s cheapest car, appears to have developed a technical snag. Three cases have been reported of the car developing short circuit near the combination switch in the car’s steering column, igniting small fires. The company has called two of them back for repairs. The company has now decided to carry out pre-delivery audit of the car’s electrical circuits and also check out cars that are already with customers. It is not, however, calling these check-ups a “recall’’. Recalls are done by companies when they detect a snag in a batch of vehicles that could lead to a compromise in safety norms. “We do not believe that this is generic and we are not considering any recall. However, a pre-emptive check may be carried out on cars that are to be handed over or those that are with customers, purely as a precautionary measure,’’ a spokesman for Tata Motors told TOI from Mumbai. The problems, which are similar in nature, have been noticed in three cars— one each in Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Delhi. The cars have seen smoke emanate from near the steering column area, even when parked with ignition switched off, following which some of the area around it has melted due to heat. Giving details of the problem, the Tata Motors spokesman said, “There was a minor emanation of smoke, following which there was localised meltdown of some of the wires in the combination switch area probably because of a short circuit.’’ The spokesman said while the car damaged in Ahmedabad had already been repaired, the vehicle in Lucknow was being repaired now. “The Delhi customer is still to give his car to us,’’ he said. Industry analysts hoped that the glitch, if generic, is sorted out as soon as possible. Nano, they said, is planned for overseas markets too. Pawan Kumar, the customer in Delhi, said his Nano caught fire while it was parked and blamed it on a “manufacturing fault’’. “I have lodged a complaint with the police as I feel a manufacturing defect is responsible for this mishap,’’ Kumar, for whom this is a first fourwheeled vehicle, said. Dilip Desai, an expert on automobiles, said there are live wires in vehicles even when they are parked and the ignition is switched off. “There are certain systems that are always live. If there is a leak in any of these systems, then there is a chance of a short circuit that can lead to such problems,’’ he said.
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