The Cheapest Car Ever Made

As we had often come back to discussing economic benefits/impact of sports I thought it was about time for an economic discussion forum.
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gbelday
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The Cheapest Car Ever Made

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The Cheapest Car Ever Made
Forbes.com

India's Tata Motors is developing a car it aims to sell for about $2,500, putting wheels within reach of millions -- and earning it a place in history alongside Ford's Model T

It is a rear-engined, four-door, four-seat car that will get around on 33hp--more pep than the Model T or the vw Beetle had when they drove onto the scene. The cheapest versions won't have air-conditioning or power steering, but Tata hopes its cute looks will make up for missing creature comforts

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/ar ... eoples-car
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by piranha »

It makes the Dacia/Nissan Logan look like a luxury car...
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by PKBasu »

I hope it looks more like the second version than the first! The latter looks a lot like Sanjay Gandhi's quixotic plan to build the original Maruti "people's car", after a couple of years of apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce of all places!!
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by Peter »

Anybody know of India's plan for alternate energy vehicles?  The oil crisis is looming large, what with global warming & peak oil.

Here is the USA's best step forward.  Costs one lakh US $
http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?sbl=1
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by piranha »

Now Renault announced that they plan to hire 1000 engineers to design a 3000 euro car in India.
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by nballa »

is it made out of plastic?
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by gbelday »

Why criticising the Rs 1-lakh car is wrong
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/04tatacar.htm

However, I like this comment made by Thomas Friedman.

"The environmentalist position found the backing of an influential opinion maker, Thomas Friedman (New York Times columnist and author of The World is Flat and The Lexus and the Olive Tree). In a New York Times op-ed he argues that "If it (India) applied itself to green mass transit solutions for countries with exploding middle classes, it would be a gift for itself and the world. To do that it must leapfrog . . . It will also be an India that gives us cheap answers to big problems -- rather than cheap copies of our worst habits.""
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by PKBasu »

So the Tata Nano did create a worldwide sensation at its unveiling yesterday (although the factory where it is to be produced, in Singur, WB is far from ready). The prototype looked pretty impressive, has 21% more interior space than the Maruti 800, meets EuroIV emission standards, and has excellent fuel-efficiency. Pretty impressive product of Indian engineering and ingenuity, led by Ratan Tata's own passion.
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by Kumar »

My concerns is with the infrastructure... this car will probably be a huge success... Lot of cars will flood the roads.. Can Indian roads handle this many cars? If this car is used for daily commute..Traffic will be really really bad..

but I guess we have to let the market handle this. If the roads are clogged and people wait in the cars for more than an hour, people may turn to other modes of transportation (may be  back to two wheelers) for daily commute at least.
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by PKBasu »

Fixing the infrastructure is the responsibility of governments and politicians, and we desperately need a better set of the latter. We need more Chandrababu Naidus, Narendra Modis, Digvijay Singhs, Naveen Patnaiks to get their hands dirty solving states' infrastructure problems. Sadly, the good ones in the Congress are crushed (like Digvijay operating as an equal colleague of Rahul Gandhi's rather than getting to work as a minister at the centre to implement some of what he successfully did as chief minister of the largest state in the Commonwealth for 10 years). But the sheer crush of more and more cars will hopefully force our politicians and governments to re-accelerate efforts to solve the road-infrastructure problem.
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by jayakris »

But really PKB, not having the huge mega super big construction companies to bribe the politicians and make them spend on infrastructure (like happens in every other country) has also been a big reason for India's lagging in road infrastucture - right? ... I think this situation may be about to change?

Jay
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by PKBasu »

Interesting point. We've had the corruption, without the infrastructure to go with it (like in Japan, the US or Saudi Arabia). Just think that Mayawati amassed Rs 50 crore while she was in OPPOSITION (and imagine what she must be amassing now).

Now that DLF, for instance, has a market capitalisation that is greater than General Motors', and other big construction/property companies are getting listed (while the Indian cement companies, and the likes of L&T, have achieved some size) perhaps they will be able to oblige our politicians to build infrastructure more savvily and quicker.

(I find it galling, for instance, that the roads in the tea plantation areas of North Bengal -- which were quite lovely when I was a child there -- are utterly ruined whenever there is a flood in the region, which happens every couple of years on average. Corruption in procurement results in this -- despite the fact that those roads would be absolutely vital should the PLA again cross the Arunachal or Sikkim border).
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Re: The Cheapest Car Ever Made

Post by jayakris »

I have been wondering about this for a while.   Crazy thought, and I feel absolutely sad that I have to wait for big time corruption from bigtime companies to happen, for our road, water and sewage infrastructure to improve.   As long as it is the Indian companies making money, I am OK with it, I suppose - the money stays in India...   I know, that is a very naive sort of view, but I have to take comfort at something.  Waiting for the Indian political system to cause real changes, seems futile (I am going to make a comment here that will earn me serious criticism, but I have thought for a long time that the Indian constitution sucks when it comes to having any reward system for politicians for working towards something that helps the country, or even their own constituencies.  So some creative ways for massive corruption to happen and help our country, is our only hope).

Jay
Last edited by jayakris on Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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