In January, while Detroit was lifting the wraps on its latest crop of big pick-up trucks and sports utility vehicles, a chunky, oblong little hatchback premiered on the other side of the world. The Nano, developed by Tata Motors and unveiled in Delhi, stole the Americans’ thunder by dominating much of the debate at north America’s biggest auto show.

Tata’s “one-lakh” or $2,500 car showcased the ability of Tata – and, more broadly, India’s emerging carmakers – to develop, engineer, launch, and sell a car at rock-bottom cost, allowing for entry-level costs affordable to the developing world’s legions of new carbuyers. Tata’s website for the car had 4m hits the day it launched. “The kind of responses we get across the world is quite astounding,” according to Ravi Kant, the carmaker’s managing director. “It has struck a chord with a whole lot of people who couldn’t imagine they would come within reach of a normal car.”