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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
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.
I doubt it will ever arrive in the U.S., at least not at that price.
The vehicle is aimed at improving driving safety by getting India's masses off their motorbikes and into cars."
Hmm...the world's second most populous nation switching from motorcycles to cars. Yes, that should do wonders for gas prices / global warming.
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
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
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
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?!
- 33 HP 660 cc gas engine. Also a 700 cc diesel option. (4)
- 80 mph top speed (4)
- single windshield wiper blade as a "cost-saving measure"(2)
- Four doors (4)
- 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) per liter. Call it 60 mpg using company supplied numbers(3)
- Picture here maybe with an scanned in article about it listing engine options
As for seeing it in the U.S., two things here: In India required safety standards do not currently include full-body crash testing, airbags or antilock braking systems (1). The cars would have to be upgraded to be U.S. street legal. Which brings us to this point: "Roland Berger [consulting group] estimates it would cost as much as $4,000 on top of Tata's $2,500 to engineer the car to meet U.S. safety and emissions regulations, transport it, pay tariffs, market it, pay lawyers and offer warranties. The same would hold true to meet European or Japanese standards. Meanwhile, the Tata would have to compete, too, with a used-car market that turns over 43 million cars a year. A quick Web search shows that $6,500 could buy a 1998 Cadillac Seville with a V-8 engine and a leather interior, or a 2002 Dodge Caravan that seats seven." References: 1 NY Times 2 Rediff 3 Forbes 4 Business Week"It's one thing to talk about the poetry of machines. Quite another to listen to it for yourself."
until you people understand this, you will continue to doom the 3rd world with your kindness.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Why should the rich have any greater right to jeopardize human and environmental health and safety? Especially when comparing the wealth of people in different parts of the world; you can't say that the comparative net worth of a particular American vs. a particular Indian have anything to do with individual merit.
/takes off tinfoil hat
From what I've observed, the USA equates rich and privilege - if you're rich, you fscking well earned it and deserve the right to plunder more. If that $PERSON_FROM_OTHER_COUNTRY were worth anything, they'd have enough money/influence/power to compete, nevermind the huge disparity in resources.
Yes, I do understand. 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. But I won't try to rationalize that selfish and irrational sentiment.
As a Canadian, (where we produce more CO2 per capita than the US - no lily-green condescension here) I fear that situation more. We're in no position to defend ourselves if we become "hostile to American interests", especially if those interests are Big Oil, since we have what they want in spades. Granted, it seems that a less hostile approach *cough*Stephen Harper*COUGH* is being taken, but we are a different lot up here - eventually, we _will_ have a conflict where the US wants our water or oil or trees or whatever, and will take it in whatever means they determine necessary against our will or better judgement. Just so you know - I don't think it will be the majority of Americans who will want to do that, just the moneyed few who will lose control unless they do so, and so will sell it to the American public as "The Right Thing".
In summation - we live in a global plutocracy, where being a USasian or Canoodian or Belizian matters not a whit, only how much money you have and what you can do to further the cause of the privileged few. The trick is to turn (a) green technology(ies) into something they need to hold on to power - then it'll be invested in and promoted like nothing else.
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
According to the specs, fuel consumption is 4L/100km. That's better than my sport touring motorcycle and only 10% worse than a modern Yamaha BWS scooter with a 49cc two stroke engine. Compared to ancient or cheaply hacked together motorcycles, the car would win hands down, even on the CO2 front.
The problem is, and indeed TFA points this one out, it's not one guy on a motorbike. Have you seen how they use their motorbikes in India? Typically they're three or four up (rider, pillion and a child or two sitting on the tank) with luggage strapped on anywhere it can go. There's a reason why that sort of thing is illegal over here ("here" being pretty much anywhere west of the Asian subcontinent).
We've had TATA pickup trucks in the UK for a few years now. They're pretty good. They're surprisingly well-built, if a bit plasticky. The 4WD box seems to be derived from Steyr-Puch running gear, and the engine is a licence-built Peugeot XUD 2-litre diesel, with or without a turbocharger. This means that engine spares and consumables aren't a problem (because about a quarter of the diesel cars and vans on the road in the UK use Peugeot engines in one form or another) and it will run quite happily on veg oil.
If every motorcycle/two-wheeler in a city like Bombay was replaced by this car, traffic would grind to a complete halt. So, in that respect, this car would make the roads safer. You just wouldn't be able to get anywhere.