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The Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, may finally be dead

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Autoblog

‘s archives are full of stories that hint at the troubled history of the

Nano

, the microcar

introduced by Indian conglomerate Tata in 2009

at a cool $1,985, making it the world’s

most affordable

cheapest car (it later jumped to $2,200 and then $2,500).

Now,

Bloomberg

columnist Anjani Trivedi

reports

the end may be nigh for the ambitious little “people’s car,” with a grand total of … wait for it … 1 unit built and zero exports in June, down from 275 and 25, respectively, in June 2017. The company acknowledged that the car in its “present form cannot continue beyond 2019.”

This as

India’s

automotive market overall is booming,

Bloomberg

notes, with growth in every segment, including a 38-percent jump in

SUVs

last month and nary an

electric vehicle

or

driverless car

in sight. A spokesman tells the outlet that the

Nano

may need fresh investment in order to survive.

But the tiny upright four-seater on tiny, 12-inch wheels

never caught fire with buyers in India

, even as several models

literally caught fire

. It reportedly never moved more than 75,000 units a year. The Indian market got a bare-bones car powered by a 37-horsepower two-cylinder engine — imagine trying to lug four grown adults with that, even though the car weighs only 1,355 pounds. An

Autoblog review of the Indian-market Nano CX in 2010

wrote that “Acceleration to 60 mph takes a long time; you might want to bring a sandwich and a cup of coffee.”

The Nano has also yet to make good on its

designs to bring a sub-$10,000 version to the United States

. At this rate, it doesn’t sound like it ever will.

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