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The World's Cheapest Car Set To Launch
theodp writes "Ready for one-automobile-per-child (OAPC)? India's giant Tata Group is on the verge of launching the world's cheapest car. The People's Car, slated to be unveiled January 10th at a New Delhi auto show, will carry a sticker price of 100,000 rupees ($2,500), which some analysts say could revolutionize automobile costs worldwide. The Tata is a pet project of Cornell-trained architect Ratan Tata, who helped design it. The vehicle is aimed at improving driving safety by getting India's masses off their motorbikes and into cars."
Heh.. you said "tatas".
God, I would love to have a tata to ride around in.. Of course people might say I looked like a boob inside that thing, but I wouldn't care.
No todo lo que es oro brilla
This sounds like a great thing, and I wonder if any imitation of it will ever see the shores of the U.S. Probably not any chance of that. I tried to find some specs, but the site is already slashdotted.
Here I thought KIAs were the cheapest form of crap I've ever seen in the automobile world.
I'll take two of them!
The Germans came out with this people's car concept back in the 1930s,... Heck, that's pretty much a direct translation of the word, "Volkswagon!
My wallet only holds 500, I wonder if Golden Skulltulas are legal tender?
Maybe five of us could cut grass together and car pool.
This sounds like a really nice idea for the people, but what about the environment when literally everybody affords a car?
:(){
I can't help but think of the negative effect this will have. Getting people off of their bikes (motor or otherwise) can't be good for fuel consumption, polution during and after the life of the vehicle, and roadway congestion to name a few.
Why are people entitled to have every luxury good at an such a low cost that it jeopardizes human and environmental health and safety? I do not think a Wal Mart world is something to aspire to. Too bad the free market basically only takes into account demand and cost.
Finally, a volkswagen, and this time made by real aryans too!
What a great way to make the world a place with more garbage and more pollution.
I thought the Chinese would beat India on this important issue. One thing I know is that they (the Chinese), are not very far behind, and they will beat the Indians. Already, they own a bigger chunk of our electronics market as compared to the Indians.
http://screwmyminicity.com/
But after 'dealer delivery cost' and 'optional features' the price will be more like 15K, no doubt.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Considering how poorly the not-even-as-low-cost Chinese cars perform in crash-tests, you've got to wonder how on earth something that cheap could possibly be safe at anything faster than walking speed.
For now, I'll hold on to my Peel P50.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
...is that all of those motorbikes are still going to be on the road, and now there's going to be a bunch of cheap cars as well. I think it likely that this will increase accidents and congestion, not to mention the increase in pollution (why wasn't that a factor in the vehicle's design?!).
Once they are in a car I believe the extra (false) sense of safety will lead to an increase in the already high rate of unsafe driving, and so safety will actually drop.
They don't need more cars, they need better licensing and training.
The US definitely needs this also. Between the cell phone idiots and people who just shouldn't be driving, being on the road in the US is not a particularly safe place to be either.
Spoken as a motorcyle AND bicyle rider.
Absolute statements are never true
Get the maniacs off their scooters and into something bigger and heavier, so they can do some real damage.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
If they manage to get everyone with a motocycle to get a car, what about the 2x to 3x times fuel consumption of the car and the 2x times pollution caused by cars?
Environmentally, it's bad news. If they tell me it's fuel efficiency is close to a motorcycle, then i'm sold!
From the summary (not even the article!):
The People's Car, slated to be unveiled January 10th at a New Delhi auto show, will carry a...
It's kind of hard for pictures to be available when it hasn't even been unveiled yet. Of course, I'm not even sure why an announcement of an announcement is news, but what can you do?
you get what you pay for. it probably will break down in less than 6 months. the repairs/maintenance for the car will probably cost more than the original cost in about a years time.
...It was called a Yugo The Yugoslav government claimed that it would be so cheap that it would drive all the evil capitalist carmakers out of business... Yeaaaaahhh..... That kindof didn't happen... Consumer Reports claimed that it, "barely qualified as a car." It had a 1.1 liter engine, barely enough to get it moving on a windy day... speaking of windy day, a Yugo was literally blown off the Mackinac bridge by high gales... Yeah, the whole Yugo thing didn't work out so well... I doubt this project will, either... but, the Yugo did get featured in the movie, Dragnet:
;-)
"After losing the two previous vehicles we had been issued, the only car the department was willing to release to us at this point was an unmarked 1987 Yugo, a Yugoslavian import donated to the department as a test vehicle by the government of that country and reflecting the cutting edge of Serbo-Croatian technology. "
Good times... Good times!! Maybe this Indian car will get a starring role in a movie, too.... at least it's got a shot at a Bollywood movie!
With $100 barrel oil and global warming, that's just what the world needs is to get a couple billion more people sitting in traffic jams burning up the dwindling supply of fossil fuels and polluting the air.
@de_machina
Either you want to say folks - wagon or volkswagen in german : volkswagen.com.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
What do you need them for? To pile into the car?
Having just got back from a 2 week business trip in India, where I got to ride around in Bangalore in traffic (in a Tata car no less), ... what the hell are these people thinking?
... yeah no conflict of interest here. Most of the guys I work with rode bikes to work, and stated their commutes would be about 33% longer if they took a car.
.... and build some more pedestrian bridges so the populace doesn't have to play human frogger all day long.
If you want to fix India traffic issues the solution is not to add MORE CARS. Infact, I would argue one should add more motorcycles to the traffic. The motorcycles are the only vehicles that get around easily in Indian traffic while the rest of the road is jammed up with giant trucks manufacturered by TATA
Real ideas for fixing Indian traffic issues and fatailities:
Purge the Indian traffic police and start over. From what I saw these guys are incredibly ineffective. They stand around and wave during rush hour. They have no power to change the flow of traffic or enforce laws due to the sheer mass and force of violations occuring. You don't get 1 guy running a red light in india, you get the whole damn contents of the Intersection.
Build a new agency from the ground up focused around safety and enforcement of laws, and start ENFORCING the traffic laws.
Increase traffic fines - now my judgement here may be skewed because the standard of living is lower in India and as a result these fines may be more to your average Indian, but check this out:
http://www.bcp.gov.in/english/trafficpolice/trafficdos/spotfines.htm
It's a list of "spot fines". Note that 40 rupees is about $1 USD.
Speeding? $7.50
Driving without a license? $7.50.
Running a red light? $2.50
Yeah - does anyone else wonder why these offenses continue to happen?
Study traffic calming techniques used in some european countries recently. The problem I see with the roads in India is they're built much like US roads - wide, big, with high curbs, and the sheer design of them encourages speeding. Parking problems in the city has made parking on lots of main roads illegal.
Get rid of the high curbs everywhere, put parked cars back onto the streets to provide a visual and mental barrier for pedestrian traffic, and make the roads "feel" dangerous (which really, if you dont think Indian traffic is dangerous already you dont have a pulse but whatetver...)
Get the giant ass Tata trucks off the roads. I don't know what the hell these Tata trucks do driving around all the time, but theyre huge flatbeds, bigger then everything else on the road, and look dangerous as hell.
Mass transit - finish the projects on time and ahead of schedule. Yeah, that means YOU Bangalore officials sitting on your asses getting kickbacks from the Metro project. Fix the shit.
Crosswalks/pedestrian bridges - Try painting some lines on the road once and a while
Get the wildlife off the roads - Now seriously, I respect the traditional farmers still left in the country and in the cities, but cows do NOT belong on roads, ok?!
USA has 186 deaths per 10000, not 1.86. India is already 9 times safer than the USA. (see the comment at the bottom)
A bicycle or motorcycle might be safer.
At least for getting out of the way of what's about to hit you.
It's incredible how many people start wading into all kinds of issues with the intent of improving safety without the first notion of what risk really is and how we humans evaluate and cope with it.
Anybody who's work may impact public safety should be forced at gunpoint to at least read Risk by John Adams. It has much to say about the effects of public safety initiatives and their unintended consequences.
For instance, after the introduction of compulsory seatbelt legislation in the UK, the number of motorists who were killed or seriously injured decreased somewhat. Unfortunately more cyclists and pedestrians were killed or seriousy injured in collisions with motor vehicles, such that the overall number of road deaths increased. Adams attributes the increase to drivers' assessment of their own level of risk being reduced, hence they tended to drive more quickly and in a more dangerous fashion, until their personal risk threshold was restored.
"...The vehicle is aimed at improving driving safety by getting India's masses off their motorbikes and into cars..."
In light of what I said previously, look out for a rise in the overall number of people KSI on India's roads...
T&K.
Political language
wget traffic is still traffic, right?
A lot of people seem to belief that having cars on the roads instead of bikes will actually worsen the congestion problems in India. However, I think it may actually improve it, and also reduce traffic violations.
I think the mobility of a motorbike might actually be a double-edged sword. When you feel mobile, you are more likely to dart across lanes and perhaps even run a red light. With a car, you're much larger, and you're not as agile and less likely to make risky moves, and bumping into someone would mean denting or scratching your car. Bumping into someone when you're on these moped-like bikes at slower speeds is not a big deal, so there's not much of an incentive to be extra cautious.
I'd also like to think that these cars may be more fuel efficient than a typical two stroke motorbike engine, and could presumably seat 4 (albeit cramped) instead of at most two adults safely on a bike.
I think it's also interesting how some people cry outrage when the use of fossil fuels may increase when a few minutes later they hop into their SUV. Apparently it's OK for the first world nations to have big cars, but when the Indians want to have a few small ones, it's a bad thing?
TATA may be a relatively unknown name outside India but have a look at where they're generally headed : They just bought Jaguar and Land Rover
Why are people entitled to have every luxury good at an such a low cost that it jeopardizes human and environmental health and safety
I think it's interesting for people to make comments like these when a third world nation tries to progress itself, when they're often posting from an iPhone while sipping their Starbucks Latte and then hopping into their Lexus.
We need them and there's not many reasons why we can't already have cars that are mostly disposable and/or recyclable. Instead of paying over and over again for the same thing every 2 to five years, automobile companies could offer contracts where you can get X many cars over Y many years. When you're done, you just take the car back to them and get another one and they take care of it. You still have the option of keeping one car if you want to, but for the overwhelming part of the population that tend to get new cars on a regular basis, this sort of situation could help out both the buyer and the manufacturer. The buyer doesn't loose all the value of his car when it leaves the lot and the manufacturer can recoup some of the cost of materials. People who like to keep their cars for a long time can do so with the satisfaction of mind that they can easily get rid of it once they're done.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
where I got to ride around in Bangalore in traffic (in a Tata car no less), ... what the hell are these people thinking?
You are mixing two different issues. Bangalore is not a typical market for this car. And yes, the traffic in Bangalore is a mess as you experienced. A lot of construction you might have encountered is for a mass raid transportation expected to be operation from 2011. See http://www.bmrc.co.in/.
where did my sig go? where's my sig at?
He was trained from a little school known as Cornell, maybe you've heard of it?
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Why not submit this as a story?
First they would have to fix the potholes on the roads. When I was in Bangalore, there were numerous holes in the middle of a wide boulevard. You can't use the word "potholes" because these holes can easily swallow a Honda Civic. Plus, they're usually marked and blocked off by only one single traffic cone. So if Bangalore, being a world class tech city, was like this - I can only imagine the less-endowed cities throughout India. You see a lot less of this in China. Not even the third-tier cities away from the coastline.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
What will its name be in Germany?
So Skulldilocks threw acid on the schoolchildrens' faces, cause somebody from the bible told her to do it!
R K Pachauri thinks this will facilitate more gas guzzling on the roads, though Tatas are quick to reject it.
Suzuki thinks safety concerns would mount
People are also worried if our roads will be congested by these cars.
Try this link:
http://paultan.org/archives/2007/10/07/more-details-on-tata-1-lakh-car/
It looks like a car that's been squeezed. It would never be sold in the US because it's missing all the federally mandated safety features... not to mention that the thing looks like it'll flip over if it goes faster than 40mph.
What it's going to do is destroy the auto market outside the US. Ford, GM, and heck, even China will have to compete against Tata in the markets that aren't as controlled as the US's is. This is why Volkswagen is making the "UP", which goes back to it's Beetle roots.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Yes, motorcycles are the fastest way to commute in most Indian cities. Not only the 'spot fines' are low, the chances of paying these fines are also low. Most people get away with traffic irregularities as long as it didn't end in an accident.
What I was getting at was that those motorcycles just became a lot more dangerous with this heavier vehicle that everyone can afford on the road. The design mandate of this car is flawed, and strikes me as a public affairs marketing ploy to justify a cheap vehicle that they plan on selling like hot cakes. That $500 (or more) dollars could have been much better spent on a solution that would have actually been solving a problem, not contributing to one. Cars like this one, once everyone in the world has one, are going to be our undoing.
that sentence was particularly telling "As an American I find the prospect of equal access to natural resources for everybody on earth very frightening, because I am accustomed to our position of privilege." If only I had mod points but I don't...
fuck karma, I like saying the truth better
http://paultan.org/archives/2007/10/07/more-details-on-tata-1-lakh-car/
PS: "Lakh" is hindi for 100,000
The world needs something between:
a motorcycle, which has limited cargo capacity, limited passenger capacity, and a very limited safety profile when it gets in a wreck
and
a full, up-to-US-safety-specs car, which typically has a trunk, room for 4 or 5 people, and a good safety factor.
In America, this will require a change in the law. However, once the law allows less-safe vehicles, a whole market will open up for 2-seater, lightweight mini-cars that run rings around regular cars in fuel economy.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Given the record of cars that small in the US(Geo Metro, Daewoo, Yugo), it isn't going to be flying off our highways or embedding itself into other cars anytime soon.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
What a complete ass of an idea. This is just dog-stupid.
At a time when we need to:
a) conserve the amount of oil that's left
b) reduce emissions of heat-trapping gasses in the atmosphere,
some fricken Einstein works out a way of encouraging many, many more people into this gas-guzzling, fossil-fuel burning, Co2 emitting habit.
And this in one of the most populated countries on Earth!
Let them ride bicycles!
But will they drive with pride?
(Maybe he needs to write a song for this car, too.)
rumor is that its only once per day per IP .. .. add 86400 to your sleep
so
The Tata
oh noes! A car named after a boobie! sweet!
is a pet project of Cornell-trained architect Ratan Tata, which he helped design.
Oh. OH. *blush* Well, erm, good on him. GJ and all that, ahem.
There is simply too much glass..
Why do you think a cheap car is being made to solve the traffic problem? The whole purpose is different and it is to bring the simple joy of car ownership that most westerners are used to for generations now to more Indians.. who are used to car ownership as something very special that only the lucky few can think of.. The traffic problem is different and if it is aggravated by this then solution is not to deprive people of the ability to buy and use cars but perhaps to build better network of roads and encourage traffic to decentralize etc..
My first thought was, "How high?"
correction. Needs to be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi_metro
Reduce, reuse, cycle
Arrogance is to bar country the same sort of advance and wealth you enjoy right now, under the pretense that since they are far more, they will pollute more... Start by reducing your own carbon footprint, THEN you will be able to claim/request that other country meet the same standard. Until then the US as a whole has no right whatsoever to comment on what other country emit as carbon footprint.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
The original/ForTwo, that is (though if I had cash laying around, I'd get a ForFour and a Sportster to go with it); it's already legal in the U.S. and should be officially offered (rather than 'grey market import') Q1 2008.
Or perhaps a Ford Ka, if you do need the 4/5 seats; though at that point, you almost might as well get a regular sedan/hatchback/whatever-as-long-as-it-isn't-an-SUV, imho.
There's many, many cars that are very safe, have a trunk, are cheap, economical, etc. The problem isn't that there aren't such cars; the problem is that people - at least in the U.S. - aren't buying them. Things like...
- top speed being lower than 140mph (which is legal, where? oh, right, you were trying to get away from the crazed axe murderer)
- acceleration from 0-60 not being lower than 4 seconds (which you need to do, when? ah yes, to accelerate out of the way of the runaway semi)
- range being less than 100 miles (because gas stations are so hard to find? Oh right, you like taking your economical car to the Alaskan planes or Utah salt beds; I forgot)
- because an SUV would crush you (good luck trying to crush a Smart, though I'm sure the people in the SUV will have a lesser headache - but let's face it.. chicken&egg problem? Makes me wonder why SUV drivers don't just all have MACK trucks by now; lest their explorer gets crushed by an expedition which gets crushed by an excursion and so forth and so on.)
- looks. Yes, the typical reason why any economical car - especially electrics - are shot down in the U.S. And when one does look good - hey, fall back to the other 'reasons'.
It's funny watching Americans coming to live here (NL).. some of them are keen to hold on to their big cars. Why's that funny? Stand around in Amsterdam, The Hague, Groningen, Utrecht, etc. and watch one of them try to navigate the streets, or find a parking space. It's extra-hilarious when somebody in a 45km/h car (don't need a driver's license, just a 'moped/scooter' certificate; but obviously you can't go on highways with it) snags a spot that the engine compartment of their SUV wouldn't even fit in.
The important thing to factor into this low price is the average wage in the region; according to a quick google, and although the figures are from 2004/2005 (I was too lazy to look any harder!) "The average wage in India. currently stands at US$145 per month." ($1,740 a year) "The White collar average wage is US$335 per month." ($4,020 a year)
So it will take a white collar worker about 7 months wages to pay for this ultra cheap car, or a non-white-collar worker could put one on lay-away.... for his grandchildren!
Doogie. If you can read this, my sig fell off
You know who else championed a "People's Car"...
I thought the Yugo was the cheapest car ever made? It was crummy, but spec wise not much worse than the Tata.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
you've got to wonder how on earth something that cheap could possibly be safe at anything faster than walking speed.
First, you must define "safe." A Ford from 50 years ago would hardly be called "safe" by today's standards, and some would argue that modern cars that score top marks on the crash tests are not "safe enough."
Stick Men
And here I thought accidents was nature trying to rebalance the human population in densely populated areas.
All this talk of cheap cars on Slashdot, and no one has come out with a Mac / PC analogy yet......
This is what all new cars should cost. For the sake of luxury and safety they could cost just a little bit more, but not much! A 1916 Model T cost less than $7,000 in 2006 dollars -- and the people who made them actually received a living wage, unlike most workers today.
no dont ! get rid of it and lets fuck myminicity.com over for real :) Burn the place!
How fitting that 'tata' also means 'goodbye'
I guess it's a kind of 'toodleoo' to our o-zone layer.
People may complain the US produces more pollution.. but this car hasn't hit the market yet.
Wait another 10 or 20 years, those global pollution charts are going to drastically change.
The Model-T Ford was the first mass-produced car meant to be affordable to everyone. Hitler wanted a car like that for Germany, which became the Volkswagen.
Okay, assuming it keeps to the price offered, how much better is it than the so called "lowly" scooters already used, the motorized pedicabs, and the scooters used as well. And secondly, is is possible to sell such a car here, considering how the Corbin (sp?) fared in the past?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
It's just like the very cheap Chinese luxury cars that came to the European market one or two years ago. They were crash tested by EuroNCAP, after which they were immediately pulled off the market. The cars had the worst safety score of all the cars they tested. This Indian car is just the same.
This crash test from fifth gear nicely illustrates the difference between old and new cars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86M_fV-1yKY I bet that Volvo is still stronger than the Indian car.
yes, but given that the price of fuel more than quadrupled over here in europe in some places withing 12 years due to environment taxes and the current efforts of e.g. mr. gore, /l or roughly 5mpg) is no longer selling.
this car could really become an option. if fuel comes at 2.25 USD the litre (yes thats 12 USD something the galon !), you`ll think thrice about buying that 2.5 tons 1998 caddy severe.
not that the car sucks or so - it just sucks a lot of fuel. over here anything worse than 10l/100km (10km
you`ll find used 1998 jaguar daimler`s for less than 2000USD already in europe. that is a great car to ride, if you don`t have to pay emission tax, insurance (together about 3000 EUR or 4500 USD) and fuel plus fuel tax (at above horror prices). otherwise that car cripples you economically. changing it to ride on natural or liquid gas will set you back 2k EUR or 3k USD, which will keep it working for another 8 years, if parking space (anything above 4m in lenghts is a problem !) and emission tax (and the stupid "if your car is handing out more than x amount of CO2, you won`t be allowed into the city"-thing) don`t make you crush it.
as long as the diesel beasty will run on plant oil, i`ld buy the fragger. and have a few beers from the savings on mr. tata.
... if you cannot say volkswagen fahrvergnügen...
TATA Box?
A lot of Americans might not realize Canada is a separate country. All it would take to start a conflict is for someone to claim Canada is breaking away. Half the US would figure if we went to war to prevent the Confederacy from leaving, we should do the same with Canada.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Two hitch hikers were thumbing by the roadside. A guy in a cheap and nasty East European car, a rip off from a 1960's Fiat design, pulled up.
:-
"I can give a lift" he said, but this thing is so gutless that I can only take one of you. Otherwise we'll never make it up the next hill.
The hitch hikers looked at the car, looked at each other, and both said
"You go!"
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
In India scooters outsell cars 6:1. For any family, getting to an outing requires several trips if they own a scooter. Even if they're crazy and put 2 adults and 2 kids on it. The Tata car is built to infuse that market with a cheap car that can compete on price with getting another scooter and all the troubles associated with being out in the open.
See in India you can already buy a Bajaj 3-wheeler aka motor rickshaw that seats 4 or 5 or more. But they're fairly expensive and they're not really cars per se - they're rickshaws. I may get one myself if gas gets expensive enough. They're registered as motorcycles in the US. And with an 8.5hp engine, max speed about 45mph it's a great around town vehicle.
Most people don't like stopping for gas. They are used to 300-400 miles between fillups. Anything less makes buyers uncomfortable.
At 50 mpg, an 8-gallon tank should be more than enough. At 80 mpg, a 5-gallon tank would suffice.
In 30 years, most cars and smaller vehicles will be electrically powered and plug into your house every night for recharging. They will probably augment this with solar power. Power will be stored on batteries or capacitors that are very efficient by today's standards. They will also have a fuel cell or generator to turn whatever the available mass-market fuel - today that is gasoline and diesel - into electricity. Larger vehicles, particularly heavy trucks, will still use combustion fuels.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I heard about this a few weeks ago. I also heard that Japanese car makers, US car makers, and even domestic car makers (in partnership with the foreign companies) were going to come out with their own cars to compete direclty with TATA in India. I would like to see Toyota use their hybrid technology on this type of car. I know it won't meet the Detroit lobbyists' requirements for "safety" , but getting a country with so many drivers to reduce their Carbon output has to have a benefit for all. I'm sure China won't be far behind India if this works well.
3.7 litres in a gallon right? Well we're at about £1 a litre here right now, so it'd be £3.7 per a gallon which at current exchange rates is $7.5. How you gonna get around when petrol costs that much? (Note I do realise that much of that is tax, which would probably would never be allowed in the US)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=epjNUVhpZ_U
Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus! The only reason Mumbai transportation works is because about half the people are riding these tiny little motorbikes. Now, picture them consuming an entire car's worth of space. You wouldn't have just gridlock, you'd have the entire road space consumed with vehicles with no space between them to move. Yer talkin' about doubling or tripling everybody's commute time.
I predict horrific disaster.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.
Henry Ford was famous for his model that was cheap enough for his employees to purchase (and conversely, paying his employees enough to buy the vehicle). Will this model fit that bill at Tata? That is probably the best way to just potential success in this case. If it is the first affordable new vehicle for many workers, we should expect success. If not, we should expect failure (note for instance that despite numerous automobile manufacturing plants in Mexico, there is not a huge new automobile market because the manufacturers don't pay their employees well).
>>> Especially when you start to factor in carpooling.
That won't make as much of a difference as you think; when I was in India, it was vanishingly rare to see a motorbike with only one person on it. 2-3 was the average, and I saw 4 a few times...and this on bikes that would be considered tiny in North America.
So it's likely there will be at best a small increase in the number of passengers per vehicle with this car compared to a motorbike.
Mind you, it's likely that there will be at worst a modest increase in petrol consumption, too - this car is said to get 59mpg, which is 25-50% worse than Indian-style motorbikes.
People-per-vehicle can't increase by more than 2x, but petrol-per-vehicle can't, either, so the end result is likely to be a fairly modest change in petrol-per-person.
I'd buy one of these things here if I could. Chinese made car... no thank you. They have trouble making kids toys safe and shipping us non-poisonous grain, I can't imagine trusting my life to a chinese made vehicle.
But, since it doesn't seem like we'll get cars from either very soon, it's Scion for me.
MG Rover was reported to be paying Tata £3,000 for each City Rover. Crunch the numbers any way, that's super cheap for a car. Sadly Rover got greedy and priced the model out of it's range for the UK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityRover
Looking forward to see how Jaguar continues with their new XF line and the funding from Tata.
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
It is a euro-box; the Mondeo does not sell in the US.
Try again sir.
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
>>> If it is true that usually multiple people use cars in India, imagine what
>>> tandem velomobiles could do
Price everyone out of the market?
You are, frankly, being absurd - you're touting a rich man's toy as a replacement for a poor man's car. At $7,500 for one seat with minimal cargo capacity, your velomobile is maybe a third as useful as the car you're suggesting it replace, and at three times the price.
If they wanted a bike, they'd buy a bike. Hell, a bike would be more useful - at least there's space for a bunch of cargo or a friend or two - and at 1% the price.
which is about the same as my 500cc kawasaki. or at least it was before I go knocked over by a unseeing driver.
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
Just what the internet needs, a couple more dicks riding Tatas.
While Slashdot's moderators thought your comment was funny, apparently Tata Group doesn't.... There was a porn site called bodacious-tatas.com, and Tata did a trademark lawsuit to make them stop using the allegedly infringing name.
There was also the problem that the car company would have to do the testing, including crashing a couple of cars, which was the problem Bill Gates had with his Porsche. That wouldn't be a problem for Tata, but they'd still probably need to reinforce the car body, and add some higher-cost features like airbags and anti-lock brakes that their low-budget car probably doesn't have.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The people's car? I wonder what people will call it in Germany. Maybe some sort of Wagon? For the Volks?
My 600cc 4cyl bike puts out almost 100hp and gets on average almost 52mpg, unless of course, I'm riding hard and fast. Then it drops to around 40mpg. I'll take it any day over a tin can car like this. Also, if you've never been to India, consider that motorcycles routinely carry all sorts of cargo, and are not used like they are in the west.
I'd say that a better solution is most definately more enforcement of existing laws and MASS transit on rails. Even your most worthy Bostonian driver wouldn't stand a chance navigating Indian traffic.
Democrats and Republicans are like AIDS and Cancer, I want neither!
Most states in India have no pollution control or "EPA" mandated CFC limits. In major metropolises there is so much smog such that almost all my friends who went to visit came back with temporary bronchitis. One of my friends almost died because she had trouble breathing after a few days (and you don't want to end up in an Indian hospital no matter how expensive, look for "nursing homes"). If you travel about and come back later in the evening your fingers/neck/face other un-covered areas of your body will be covered with soot.
What India and the world needs is better/cheaper/faster public transportation. It really reduces traffic and increases throughput in the long run.
Call me when they break the $200 barrier.
I think that if controls were to be enforced on those intersections there would be gridlock in no time. The amount of traffic flowing continuously through them is huge and controls would only slow it down. As it is the roads are as efficient as they can be, the curbs keep vehicles off the pavement. Mass transit is the real solution but, good luck. Bad for pedestrians though, maybe fenced islands in the roads? Funny the easiest place to cross is where traffic is heaviest.
Well, we may have finally found a solution to the population crisis in India...
...on-road attitudes do - I really wish the authorities would get this. Also, absolute speed doesn't kill people - relative speed does. If thousands of people with Asian (yes, I'm from there) urban biking attitude suddenly get infused with a sense of invincibility because of 4 walls of thin metal/ plastic cladding, I doubt this will increase safety. Seriously, zebra crossings in my country are basically a gamble, mostly due to selfish, inconsiderate drivers.
This, added with the driving schools who pride themselves (and are therefore driven by) with the number of passes each year versus the quality (infringements post license) of drivers they release, is a disaster waiting to happen.
Throw a few nukes that direction, or just start a war between India and China that results in the same thing.
Adobe. The sassy new Mexican import that's made out of clay. German engineering and Mexican know-how helped create the first car to break the $200 barrier. At this price, you might not expect more than reliable transportation - but, brother, you get it! Extra features: like the custom contour seats, or the beverage-gripping dash. And the money you save isn't exactly small change!
Not approved for street use in some states. No warranty either expressed or implied. All sales final.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
You must be the real american who knows how to shout your mouth off with all the nonsense you can aren't you? Why dont you shut up and stop making yourself look so smart ass when you are so not? People, i live in india. While conditions may not be as great as your dollar rich USA is it certainly is not as pathetic as the Anonymous Coward tells you. (no wonder he is an anonymous coward) Cows, Dogs, Sheep do take to the road here and yes that is normal in india. That is what india is all about. Livestock is also transport here. People still use bullock cards to transport material. Although this is not common a sight to see nowadays it still exists and is fading away. However what was told about bikes is right. I personally use a bike. Car would mean longer travel times and bikes are easier to navigate. That does not mean indians should not have the right to the luxury of cars, does it? Tata understands this better and what they are doing is great. yes it will add to more pollution and fuel consumption but that needs to be addressed with alternative fuel sources. You cant just deny shit to people because its scarce and it may become even more scarce if its over used. Thats ridiculous. India is fast developing and the infrastructure we had 5 years back is nothing and what we have now is on par with most developing nations and its only getting better by the day. Hey, after all we have all of your high paying computer jobs from all over the world. We sure got the money to build better roads and flyovers, and we are doing it already big time.
Increase traffic fines - now my judgement here may be skewed because the standard of living is lower in India and as a result these fines may be more to your average Indian, but check this out:
http://www.bcp.gov.in/english/trafficpolice/trafficdos/spotfines.htm
It's a list of "spot fines". Note that 40 rupees is about $1 USD.
Speeding? $7.50 Driving without a license? $7.50. Running a red light? $2.50
Yeah - does anyone else wonder why these offenses continue to happen?
Your judgement is very skewed. No offence as you've obviously put a lot of work into your post, but what the fines are in USD is completely irrelevant, because Indians do not get paid in USD, nor do they get paid the USD equivalent in Rupees - You said yourself that there are around 40 Rupees to $1 USD, and yet you seem to be labouring under the impression that Indian traffic offences warrant fines of the Rupee equivalent of $7.50 - it's not R7.50, it's R300.
Yes that's still a low fine for speeding, but it's not as ludicrously low, and still not something you could write off as a daily expense ("oh sure it's a fine, but I make that much back in the hour I save speeding to work" - they don't). As good as America might be, when you are an Indian being fined in India in Indian Rupees, how much it's worth in USD is entirely irrelevant. It's like you losing your wallet with $500 in it and me saying it's not too bad because that's only around £250. It's still $500 to you.
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
"The people who make cars in the US today" != "most workers".
"The vehicle is aimed at improving driving safety by getting India's masses off their motorbikes and into cars."
How does getting people into cars improve safety? Look at post war Europe, Australia and USA. Small flea powered cars first, then bigger and faster models every year until people are wrapping themselves around trees every day in SUVs with the same horsepower rating as a small railway shunting engine!
"I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for, er... food." Col. Jack O'Neil, SG-1
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."