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Unless you've been hiding under a stone, there is no way you can have missed the . Looking a bit like a cross between a biscuit tin and a shopping trolley, this tiny five-seater has been greeted in its native land with something bordering on hysteria.

Â鶹Éç News graphic showing the key features of the Nano.

Why? Well, it's the world's cheapest new car, retailing at an affordable 100,000 rupees (£1,366). For many Indian families it represents the transition from the indignity of the ubiquitous moped to the stately luxury of four wheels and a cabin to call your own. It's robustly basic, lacks standard European features like air bags and has a pokey two-cylinder engine, but is apparently nonetheless .

But a car all the same. Despite the Nano's claim to green credentials - it coughs up less CO₂ than many motorbikes - the mere thought that it could shift as many as a million units a year in India alone (it won't ) has left many .

The Nano provides a neat insight into one of the key issues of the climate change debate: who are the 'haves' who have reaped all the benefits of a fossil fuel economy to tell the 'have nots' they can't enjoy those same benefits? It's an argument neatly summed up in one user comment on YouTube:

'We all love our country and its various offerings of nature and we would like to preserve them. But we would also like to continue on the path of progress that we have taken and create new chapters in the development of our country.'

(For more about reducing your own driving emissions, take a guilt-free trip via the internet to Climate Change: Bloom's Fuel Efficient Driving action.)

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