Plastic Car Will Be World’s Cheapest
THE narrow, pot-holed roads of this boomtown on India’s southwestern coast are a sea of humanity on wheels. Here, as in most of India, right of way is accorded by a vehicle’s size - motorcycles stop for cars, cars stop for trucks, trucks stop for buses, and buses stop for cows.
So, in a country where size does matter, an Indian car maker is set to roll out the world’s cheapest car next year, enabling those at the bottom of the traffic pecking order to move up a notch.
And it will put the Indian dream of owning a new car — a symbol of status in a status-obsessed culture — within reach of tens of millions of people.
The car maker Tata Motors has not divulged many details about the car other than its shockingly low sticker price of 100,000 rupees, or 1 lakh in Indian currency. That’s just over £1200, less than half the price of the lowest-priced cars on India’s market today.
“It’s going to be a revolution,” said Naveen Khunna, 36, who plans to buy eight of these cars for his New Delhi-based pharmaceutical supply company. “Most people use motorcycles and mopeds, but not because they want to — they prefer cars but can’t afford them. That is definitely going to change.”
The car’s rollout comes as India’s economy expands at a faster-than-expected rate of 8% a year, second only to China. In this country of 1.1 billion people, sales of small cars are expected to double to two million in the next three years, as the country’s emerging middle class expands from 50 million people today to an estimated half billion by 2025.
Supposedly, the 1 Lakh Car — Tata has yet to release its official name — will be a 4-door as big as a Volkswagen Rabbit, much of it will be plastic, and it will have a rear-mounted 30-horsepower engine. By comparison, a Rabbit has about 150 horsepower.
Tata is counting on it being a mega hit. It better be, analysts say. A huge volume of sales is necessary to make up for the car’s tiny profit margin of less than 3%.
But its success could spell trouble for India’s urban planners and environmentalists who say a drastic increase in car ownership could overwhelm the country’s already crowded roadways and worsen its air quality.
The need for more affordable cars is sometimes glaringly obvious. In India, it is not uncommon to see entire families of four or five, precariously balanced on a motorcycle, weaving through traffic.
Sudheer Mahanan, a government forest warden, often carries two passengers on his moped, his 11-year-old son, Harikrishna, and his five-year-old daughter, Harichandana, who is small enough to fit on a flat space between the seat and the handlebars.
He is among those Tata is targeting for its 1 Lakh Car, largely by offering lucrative trade-in deals for motorcycles and mopeds. But even at 1 lakh, the car is out of his price range, as it is likely to be for the two-thirds of India’s population who live on £1 a day.
“I’ve already taken out a bank loan to buy this moped,” said Mahanan, 42, after being waved out of the traffic for an interview. “For me to buy a car, it would need to be about 50,000 rupees,” he said. That’s about £630. Fat chance.
As it is, only eight in every 1000 Indians own a car, compared to roughly 500 Europeans and 770 Americans per 1000.
Environmental groups have already expressed “great concern” about India’s air quality, especially in most of the country’s largest cities, where they say the air quality is already at “critical levels.”
“Can you imagine if even 1% of Indians had a car? Our roads can hardly handle the number of cars out there right now,” said Mahesh Mehta, an environmental attorney based in New Delhi.
“We should not be following the Western model of car ownership. That would be disastrous in India. We need better public transportation, better railways and subways,” he said.
India’s parliament is expected to plow about £152m into the country’s outgrown infrastructure, including building and widening highways across the country, according to Indian commerce secretary, GK Pillai.
If the 1 Lakh Car is as successful as its makers hope, it is expected to boost sales in spin-off industries such as petrol stations, car parts stores, auto repair shops, and driving schools.
The cheap cars are expected to energise an already booming car market in Kerala, especially in places such as Kochi and Trivandrum that have fast-growing trades in tourism and technology.
In Kerala, India’s only communist-run state, the occasional roadside posters of Che Guevara and red flags with gold hammer and sickle increasingly share space with huge billboards touting Western-style bling, including new car ads that say: “Welcome to civilization.”
Azad Pathan owns a Tata dealership on Trivandrum’s “Motor Mile,” which has about a dozen dealerships with polished showrooms for new cars and trucks.
“It is definitely going to be big. But then, Ratan Tata chairman of Tata Motors is a man with a big vision,” Pathan said.
Will the car’s wafer-thin profit margin leave little room for the very Indian sport of bargaining?
“This is India,” Pathan said. “I’m sure we are going to get customers coming in here wanting us to throw in free floor mats and mud flaps.”
©2007 newsquest (sunday herald) limited
Truly visionary would be ELECTRIC engine, with solar electricity-generating film on its exposed surfaces, instead! Then they could really tell the rest of US, Ta Ta!
I bought a Russian made Lada back in the early 1980s, it was a gem, not a shiny gem. It was cheap, real cheap. It lasted four years, It came with a tool kit just like a BMW, but the tools looked like they were created by a caveman. A finally traded it in for a Nissan. When I drove into the Nissan dealer to pick up my new vehicle the Lada was smoking, the salesman quickly moved it behind the car showroom and out of sight. He offered me a chrome bumper for it….he was very kind. I also bought the little Lada the day before the Russians shot down an airliner, needless to say getting parts was not easy.
However I must say it was a conversation piece. And I never did drive it into the states.
I can’t imagine what this Indian car will be like.
Tata
Considering a single SUV spews out about 30 times as much carbon into the environment as these little cars maybe we should focus on meeting our own non-existent emissions goals here. Carbon, does not just stay suspended where its generated.
I suppose we can snigger and mock the plight of the ‘poor’ Indians who are excited about a cheap-ass car since it makes us feel superior in some twisted sense, but its in really poor taste. I agree they need to rely on mass-transit to solve transportation issues but articles such as these only serve to remind us about our own cynical, irresponsible behaviour in terms of contribution to global environmental pollution.
Lovely. Tens or hundreds of millions of more cars on the planet. Just what the climate needs right now.
I would say that a 30 hp engine should be pretty fuel efficient. It brings back thoughts of the 36 hp Karmen Ghia that I once had. It could cruise at 65 mph on the freeway and got good gas mileage. It was a 1959 and the red paint was faded to pink, but it was a good car.
Too bad they’re not electric.
Thats right Douglas. How dare they friggin drive so many cars and use our friggin oil … bastards. We should just bomb them. That will teach them.
Most plastic that is manufactured requires loads of petroleum. At a time when “cheap oil” is fading away day by day, you cannot possibly expect plastic cars to be cheap let alone cheapest unless of course other oils such as hemp oil or even jute is used to manufacture plastic in the Far East instead of petroleum and I seriously doubt that’s happening.
the picture is the best part!!!
I would rather the petroleum was made into plastic than spewed into the atmosphere. Steel, which is what most car bodies are made of is a pretty energy intensive product, too. Even recycling it releases lots of CO2 into the atmosphere. I wish there were some 30 HP cars available in America, I would buy one. (I drive a 60 HP Geo Metro now) It is absolutely ridiculous and indicative of American arrogance, vanity and deep seated insecurity that we have suburbanites driving around in 3 ton behemouths with 250 - 300 horsepower engines.
They could go the route of the GM Volt and make it a series plug in hybrid. Use the 30 hp motor with a 20 kw alternator to charge the batteries on the fly when needed. The Volt is said to be able to seat 4 and get 60 mpg.
Here’s an example of my fantasy car–for India and for the United States:
http://www.theaircar.com
http://www.theaircar.com/faq.html
There are air car videos on YouTube also.
Actually India’s largest car maker is set to roll out anAIR powered car next year. The car uses compressed air to power an air motor and is refueled by overnight running of an air compressor at home or at a specially equipped stations. This vehicle is largely plastic also but costs too much for most Indian people at present. Sure wish they would make an Americanized version because air tanks don’t wear out like batteries do and the air motor is repaired much like an internal combustion engine is. Here’s a link: http://www.popularmechanics/automobile/newcars/4217016.html
Steve
In San Francisco most people don’t own a car because they can’t find a parking space. In India I do not think that the cities were built with parking in mind. I guess they will find that out the hard way.
Large populated areas do not need more cars, they need better forms of mass transportation.
gyptian,
Are you trying to put words in my mouth? Or are you suggesting that millions of more cars will not have an impact on the environment? Or just what is it you are trying to say? Don’t be shy, clarify yourself. As for “our” oil, who is included in the possessive “our”? And why bomb?