India’s Tata Motors unveils $2,500 car
World’s cheapest car an ‘environmental disaster’ for India
Something akin to a motoring revolution has been unveiled in India – a compact car that will sell for a little over $2,500 when it hits the market later this year.
The makers of the Nano believe it will revolutionise how India’s 1.1 billion people get around, but critics say it will be an environmental disaster in a country already plagued by chronic air and noise pollution.
The theme from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey played as the Nano was unveiled at the annual Delhi car show by Ratan Tata, the head of India’s industrial giant Tata Industries.
“We are very pleased to present these cars to you today,” he said.
“They are not concept cars, they are not prototypes. They are the production cars that will roll out of the single plant later this year.”
At three metres long, 1.6 metres high and 1.5 metres wide, the Nano lives up to its compact name.
It is a four-door, rear-wheel drive with a two-cylinder gasoline engine that claims to offer 20 kilometres per litre.
But the biggest attraction is not performance, it is price – 100,000 rupees – a little over $2,500 before on-road costs.
The target market is the many million of Indians who currently use a motorbike for family transport.
Environmental concerns
Still, many months before the car becomes available, potential buyers on the streets of New Delhi seem easily sold on the idea.
“Those people who are riding motorcycles these days can drive a car and they will find it easier to drive a car in the streets,” one Indian man said.
“Everyone can afford this car.”
The prospect of the Nano’s popularity scares environmental campaigners in India, Centre for Science and Environment spokeswoman Anumita Roychowdhury said.
“There is just no room left for more cars in Delhi. If you really look at the city, the roads are already congested,” she said.
“Data shows that we have even gone beyond the designed capacity of the roads.
“The traffic speed has come down drastically from 35 to 40kph to 12 to five kph [at] the peak traffic volume.
“Now that clearly brings out the fact that it is a crisis that we need to deal with, because [of] both the congestion and pollution impact.
“This cheap motorisation that is now going to explode in Indian cities, we are not prepared for it at all.”
The Nano is the brainchild of Mr Tata, the 70-year-old head of the family company. And the old man bristles at criticism the car may not be eco-friendly.
“We may as well come to grips with the fact that all the things that you ask for may not be in a one-lakh (100,000 rupees) car and all the things that might be there in an eco car, may not be possible for one lakh,” he said.
“Take it as it is. It’s a car that’s affordable, provides transport, meets all safety laws, meets all emission laws present and future.
“[It] will be a reliable form of transport which will provide Indian families an all-weather means of safe transport.”
But it is not just the Nano for India. In two or three years’ time, Mr Tata wants to roll out export version of the Nano to developing countries around the world.
