Pushing more and more Tata Nanos on Indian consumers has become the sole obsession with Tata Motors right now, or so it seems. And the Indian company seems to be going at it like never before. After the Tata Nano sales fell down miserably, Tata Motors came up with some outstanding marketing and finance strategies to boost up the sales. Not surprisingly, the Nano sales shot up to a healthy 5,784 units in Dec 2010 compared with a meager 509 units sold in Nov 2010.

Alright, enough about Tata Nano sales now. Here is something more interesting and it does not talk about boring sales numbers. Word has it that Tata Motors is planning to launch the diesel version of the Tata Nano in September 2011. This news seems to be pretty reliable as it comes from the vendors associated with the Tata Nan. As we all know that the Nano banks heavily on its tiny price tag, and the diesel variant of the car, with its price range of Rs. 1.8 – 2.2 lakh, would maintain that too.

Most likely, the engine for the Nano would be in the 600cc-700 cc range like the current petrol (623 cc). The Tata Nano diesel, if launched with a sub 1 liter engine, will be the smallest and cheapest diesel car in the Indian market. And people who are really agitated with the ever increasing petrol prices would kill to purchase a diesel car this cheap.

Sources reveal that while Honeywell has developed the world’s smallest turbo system for the Nano diesel, the smallest common rail direct injection (CRDi) system will be fitted by Bosch.

Bosch, which is major automotive components manufacturer based out of Germany, had earlier revealed that it has developed a special diesel engine in partnership with Tata Motors for the small car. We all know that a decade ago Tata Motors started the trend of small size diesel engines with its 1.2 litre Tata Indica. And we have seen the success that Maruti Suzuki achieved with the 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engine from Fiat featured in the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Ritz and Swift Dzire.

Maruti’s strongest line up of cars consist of the Alto, the world’s largest selling small car (2010), Wagon R and Eeco, but none of these models have a diesel variant. With the launch of the diesel Nano with an engine capacity below 1000 cc, Tata Motors will be writing another success story after Indica.