By the time you add a larger engine, as well as emissions, safety and basic features Americans expect, the price advantage is gone.

The little Indian car that has made big headlines around the world showed up in Detroit this week, but only in prototype form.  Executives from Tata Technologies said they were not quite sure when a production version of the $2,500 Nano would be heading for U.S. shores.

And by the time it gets here you can kiss the low, low price good bye.

The one-off of the Nano, which recently launched in Tata’s home market made its debut at the Detroit Science Center, part of a program marking the opening of the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Warren Harris, Tata Technolgies president and chief operating officer in North America, noted that the company’s eponymous founder, Rattan Tata, has said the Nano would eventually go on sale in the U.S.  But the timing is far from certain. 

A decision is expected soon, but that will just set in motion the re-engineering needed to meet American regulations with the Nano.

“No decision has been made yet on when to bring the car to the U.S.,”  said Harris, who carefully noted that Tata Technologies is only one of more than 100 Tata Group companies, and the tiny four-seat Nano is sold by another company – Tata Motors.

A decision is expected soon, but that will just set in motion the re-engineering Tata will need in order to meet American regulations with the Nano.

An informed best guess is that the tiny car will on sale in the U.S. by the middle of the decade, Harris claimed.

“The car needs stiffer structure in the rear”  to meet U.S. crash test standards, and right now it doesn’t have any airbags, explained Harris.  The top speed of the Indian version of Nano is only 65 miles per hour, added Harris, who said, “It would probably need to go 80 or 90 miles per hour,” which, in turn, “would probably (mean) a bigger engine,” said Harris.

The current two-cylinder powerplant is just 0.64-liter, barely half the size of the smallest powerplant now widely available in the States.

“It also would need more features….like iPod connectors, cupholders and USB ports,” Harris said. “At least that was the reaction we got from the students we showed the car to.”

The Nano also used some old-school technology such as hydraulic brakes and crank widows but it is roomy and the materials and finish in the inside don’t scream cheap.  If anything, the $2,500 car puts to shame a lot of the small cars brought to market by both domestic and East Asian companies over the past decade.

Tata Technologies also played an important role in the development of the Nano,  which debuted last year and is one of the most talked about vehicles launched in the past decade.

Harris said engineers from Tata Technologies have been involved in the Nano project because Rattan Tata wanted fresh thinking. Tata engineers in North America  also recently helped develop a European Version of the Nano, which will go on sale later this year.

In all, Tata Technologies contributed to 18 separate patents on the Nano project, said  Kevin Fisher, Tata Technologies’ head of global delivery. “Our work on the Nano is part of a sweeping wave of change within the automotive industry ,” he said during an event at the Detroit Science Center where the Nano was unveiled in the US for the very first time.

Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of US$ 8.8 billion in 2007- 08. Through subsidiaries and associate companies, Tata Motors has operations in the UK, South Korea, Thailand and Spain. Among them is Jaguar Land Rover. It also has a strategic alliance with Fiat. With more than 4 million Tata vehicles plying in India, Tata Motors is the country’s market leader in commercial vehicles, and among the top three in passenger vehicles. It is also the world’s fourth largest truck manufacturer and the second largest bus manufacturer. Tata cars, buses and trucks are being marketed in several countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia and South America.