Your dreams of riding in the ultimate cheapo deathbox have just gotten a little bit more real. According to a report,
Tata will begin production of its diminutive, ultra-affordable Nano car this Fall. The $2500 vehicle is generally known as the cheapest car in the world, though worries over inflation suggest that its price-point may move above the intended figure. In other news, sources say that Tata plans a "greener" version of the vehicle in addition to the original model, which -- if it happens -- will likely be a real knockout punch for penny-pinchers with an Earth-hugging mindset. Still, you'll probably have to ship it from India, which would burn a lot of fossil fuels, which would be bad for the environment... oh just buy an old Yugo.
[Via
Autoblog Green]
posted Jul 3rd 2008 9:49AM
These should be at F-16 training grounds to test A-G missiles.
why? put Ur own car there, i wont be ny more happy but at least u will understand *something* in these miserable times!!!!!
http://www.fashionfunky.com/2008/04/gm_announces_tata_nano_competi.php
Putting GM cars as target practice now?
GM car just a bit more safe than scooter?
GM car a pickachu? safety standards of GM cars gone to the gutter?
GM cars causing rise in Oil prices, and not guzzlers?
what a bunch of jokes!
I like this car, and I can tell you all that quality wise, this is above a Cavalier and below a Cobalt...
I wan GM and Ford to DIE...
Hey, I'm all for cheaper, more fuel efficient, or even gas replacing vehicles... but the only things that are going to die with this one are the passenger and the driver.
This TATA was absolutely ripped apart on Top Gear by jezza, cap'n slow and the hamster! The joke of the day being that 'you know how you would be able to tell that luxury model? it would have a mule attached to the front!" Man this car is ugly to say the least.
That show was prolly financed by *rich* car makers who won't be able to engineer their cars at that cost factor and fuel efficiency. Guess the joke is on you, but you won't ever get it.
yes! i want the EEE car! o wait, not asus?
say 'tata' to picking up chicks in one of these...
Lol.
I admit it's a ghastly lookin car. But it's mainly intended for a family (of 4 or 5) who drive on scooters and motorbikes in India.
If you really wanna do a story engadget, do one on how clogged the Indian roads are, and what number of Nano's tata plans to sell, and THEN how badly the roads are gonna be once a 100,000 of these hit the streets.
I agree Abishek. I go to India every other year and the streets are worse than the cities here. Once all the people that ride electric bikes/scooters on the road get this, ground transportation is damned in India.
There goes the $4.00/gallon gas prices. Imagine, the 2nd most populous country (1.1 billion people) now has the cheapest (by far) new car in the world and it's powered by gasoline.
funny how u ignored American and European consumption, u ignorant ranter
@Tas Kar: What the hell do I care about what anybody else pays for gas. I only care what I and the people where I live pay for gas you douche bag!
@Tas Kar: Another thing, I said FOUR DOLLARS per GALLON. That's US Dollars. So I don't get your point by including American in your comment to me. Common sense says if the US is already suffering high gas prices because of increased consumption by India and China (one of other reasons for high gas prices), then the introduction of this car to the people in India will not help matters.
I could see if this car was a hybrid or full electric. But, although this car will give people in India more opportunity to own their own vehicle (which is nice in my opinion), it will not help gas prices by all of a sudden having the 2nd most populous country in the world having a dirt cheap (to us in the US at least) car available in their market.
Take that as you will. Like I said above, I honestly don't give a rat's ass what other countries pay for gas. I only care what we pay for here in the US as it affects our economy and our bottom line.
@apeguero: You ARE ignorant. Crude oil is an internationally traded commodity. If the price of gas in the US goes up, it's because the price of crude oil has gone up. (You'd know that if you read a newspaper in the last year). If the price of crude oil goes up, the price of petrol in India goes up too (even though it's subsidized).
Ergo, I care what you pay for gas and how you use it, because your idiotic gas-hungry-car is driving up fuel prices for my highly-economical-car.
America has the highest per-capita fuel consumption in the world. A TATA Nano will definitely congest the roads of India, but it won't do nearly as much damage as idiots driving around in Hummers.
@Tas Kar: I don't get your comeback. You say I don't care about what Americans and Europeans pay for gas? Did you see that "S" with two bars in the middle to the left of the number four? That's a Dollar sign. Where is that currency symbol mostly used? In America! What's the average price per gallon in America these days? Around $4 per gallon. Oh, sorry, there's that funny "S" again. Four Dollars per gallon, Three Dollars and Ninety Five cents where I live to be exact.
As for what the Europeans pay? I don't know what they pay. I don't live over there. All I hear from many of them is that it's about time that we pay as much as they do for gas...
@Nonedone: You sir are the dumb ass here. I sold my second car and have gone down one which is not a HUMMER. The price of gas, at least from what I've read in the past few months (going with name calling then fine, Mr. Ignorant ASS) has been driven up by increased consumption in China and India, consumption in the US has gone down as a result of high gas prices. Other factors are the price of the dollar and the Speculators here in the US that keep driving the price up of Light Sweet Crude due to fears of this Government attacking Iran or the constant fear of a de-stabilized Middle East. Don't tell me I don't read and make stupid, dumb-ass assumptions without knowing who you are speaking to.
More Nanos in India WILL increase their gas consumption because the car runs on gasoline only. Even if they replace their old cars with this new one, the Nano will still consume gas. It's more likely that more people will be buying this car that never owned a car before also. I don't have a problem with that. I know plenty of Indians and have never met one I did not like. So if it brings happiness in their lives to own their onw transportation then nice for them. Either way, it's an increase of fuel consumption from India that will result from this.
To be honest here, I would love for the US to get out of this addiction with gasoline so we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. It's increasing the price of almost everything here. I don't make policies, I'm just a consumer. Therefore, I only care what I pay at the pump and will do what I can to save money, even if it means going down to one car in my family.
@apeguero: More ignorance. You're correct in your analysis for the de-stabilization of the middle-east as one of the factors. However, your charge that India and China and driven up gas prices is as idiotic as the charge that India and China have driven up food prices. The real statistic to look at here is PER CAPITAL FUEL CONSUMPTION. If an average American used as much fuel as an average India, fuel prices would PLUMMET.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Consumption_rates
Compare the per capita consumption rates (either by population or by GDP), and you'll see the HUGE gap.
My car gives me 45 miles per gallon in the city and 55 mpg on the highway. And I drive less than 10 miles a day (as would an average person in Mumbai). Can you really compare you and me?
I stand corrected, the US does NOT have the highest per capita fuel consumption in the world.
That award goes to Saudi Arabia. However the US uses 68 barrels of fuel per person per year. India uses 2 barrels of fuel per person per year. You claim that a car that gives over 70 mpg will really affect fuel prices that much?
@Nonedone: I stand corrected as well, sort of. If this car really does drive at 70mpg then, hell, I want one too :)
Like I said above, I don't have a problem with people in India being given this opportunity to have an affordable car (to me anyway and I would imagine to them as well). I have yet to meet an Indian which I did not like. My concern from this whole thing is how it will affect the price at the pump here in the US. Asshole speculators will make sure that this is a cause to increase the price even more. And that's that from me.
Are these the same guys who bought jaguar.
yupp... tata bought jaguar.
IMO calling it a "deathbox" is completely baseless. If I remeber correctly, when Ratan Tata announced the car, he said it had passed crash testing and safety standards.
Yes.
Also bought LandRover. Nice to see an Indian company gaining worldwide share after a long time. I'm an Indian born in America, really.
@CUBSWILLWIN
.... you forgot to add that you were also delusional -- CUBSWILLWIN !! rofl
@doobster if you really believe what tata says then you better read their rap sheet and bhopal.net. Tata is not the pride of India(only in the mainstream media as much as Monsanto is the pride of america).
They have been literally murdering Indians for furthering their business and I would believe this is a deathbox without any proof.(even though it may not be) just because it is a tata product.
Oh there is another reason why this is a deathbox. Tata killed a lot of villager in a bid to evacuate them to set up the Nano factory and Singuri. I am sure this Nano has been a deathbox for all those who died there.
here is the link
http://www.bhopal.net/tata_rapsheet.html
You must remember the bhopal tragedy this is a website that is dedicated to fighting for that cause.
They only put up tata "hidden" past into the open because Tata wanted to coverup DOW as they wanted DOw to invest in their Chemical Plant.
Tata has no intention of bringing "luxury tranport to the poor". There is no altruistic intention here. The whole concept is driven by greed. They are just looking at a huge Indian Middle class market here. This is a disaster as TAT has only thought about sales figures and nothing else.
@Qwan
Ur statement shows your ignorance. Was that intentional? You are making it look like they killed thousands of Indians for some dollars, was that it? You dont know a thing dude.
Seems like you are working for the company that killed thousands in Bhopal, and just want every other company to look as bad.
@qwan: I don't quite think you know ANYTHING about Tata Sons? About how Jamshedji Tata introduced employee welfare long before the western world created "Human Resources", or about how JRD gave up his own airline company so that it could become a national carrier, or how Ratan Tata has pushed Corporate Social Responsibility to the forefront in Indian enterprise or how Tata Institute of Social Sciences is one of the foremost universities in the world for studying Social Work.
Or maybe you just have selective memory about the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
@qwan: And in reply to your allegation that Tata killed people for the Nano factory- that just shows how ridiculously ignorant you are about India and Indian politics.
Tata bought the land from the Government of West Bengal. West Bengal is ruled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and has bitter political rivals all over Bengal.
The CPI-M was accused of illegally acquiring the land from farmers and the Trinamool Congress used violence as a means of protest. This is related to a larger problem in West Bengal surrounding a disputed Special Economic Zone in Nandigram
Get your facts straight before you go around hurtling accusations.
@ qwan
I know about their Singuri plant fiasco. I take the controversy with a pinch of salt. Tata has done a whole lot for India.
"There is no altruistic intention here. The whole concept is driven by greed."
I never said they were altruistic. Greed is a good thing.
Oil rose 247% on news that the Tata was to enter production.
So if you buy two Tatas do you have a bodacious set of Tata Tatas?
^^ EXCELLENT!!!
Perhaps. But they won't be bodacious.
I still think it looks like a Pikachu.
Bless you
So does Top Gear..
Top Gear owns. They are having an American version coming to NBC now. w00t!
Umm, ht edesign has won awards, and all the italian desgin houses have been singing praise of how spacious it is on the inside!
As far as the death box goes, it passed all tests and in my mind would be the same level of safety as any kia/hyundai
I still think it looks like a pikachu.
Gesundheit
Gesundheit
If you were in an accident while driving this thing, your only hope for survival is if you were hit by other Tata's.
still a lot safer than a scooter, which is what many of the indian families this is aimed at use as their main transport
I lol'd
It passed all safety tests...fyi
Mark me down for a lol too. :D
No the only hope for survival is if by being the pedestrian getting hit.
Tyler
I guess you should say "Nano" instead of tata. Tata has many models including the recently bought Rover and Jaguar :)
but you know what i think? that it still looks like a pikachu.
Damn, theres some serious allergies on this blog.
Yoou know that many *great* companies are *aping* tatas, and failing badly at it. Jokes on you, mr pickachu dude!
Must be something in the air...
So, if one is in an accident in one of these, will one's head be cuddled up by an airbag shaped like tatas? Wouldn't that be a trip!
Because they are so small shouldn't they use hardly any petrol anyway? Or is that not how it works?
thats exactly how it works. i dont know much about india , but if its like other third world countries then many of its cars are really old 'recycled' , used cars which are very inefficent. this should help because it would give an option to drive a new small and cheap car.
akthough yiu could argue that it would increase the amount of people driving .
Actually more than half the cars are not recycled or inefficient. They are getting the big brand names there. Suzuki, Honda, Audi, BMW, FIAT,Skoda, Renault (Nissan), Mercedes-Benz, Toyota,etc etc. Some of the models are models that came here first and are older now, but those models are built new obviously in India.
From ignorant rants things have gone to plain lies!
Way to go educated people!
@sinjinn: Does NO ONE here know ANYTHING about India? It's one of the largest growing Automobile markets in the world- besides Tata, the leading brands are Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda, Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet!
Most of them are designed and developed specifically for India and are extremely fuel efficient. For example, one of the largest selling urban models is the Honda City and gives about 40 miles per gallon. One of the largest pan-Indian models, the Maruti 800 gives an astounding 65 miles per gallon.
Come on people, have SOME knowledge of the world outside the west!
It's plenty safer than an open air scooter. And it's perfect for India's new middle class.
Would this pass US/EU safety standards?
Probably not. Safety standards differ big time, in everything too (especially fireworks and firecrackers/bombs)
Unfortunately in the US it probably would not pass EPA Emmissions standards.
About it being "safer" than a scooter - it might have the opposite effect. People drive faster, can't stop as quickly, and are larger to hit with and be hit in a car.
Also, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and mentioning Top Gear.
It's a Punkiwalla(or what ever those things were called): see reference photo: http://pitumbo.com/pikachu2.gif
Pikachu Mobile anyone?
STOP IT!
Mr Bean goes to India.
slap an electric motor and I'm game.
...I would buy 2 for a friend's girlfriend, and then make jokes about how she has nano tatas.
this 'joke' is not easily understandable and made me waste 20 seconds trying to make sense of it. please , if you want to make puns , make sure they deliver after the brain work that goes into deciphering them.
FAIL , EPIC FAIL
If you call that "brain work" to decipher that maybe you should give your brain some more exercise! :)
It really wasn't that cryptic.
@sinjinn: ...uhhh...sorry you didn't get it right away?
it is a bad joke...but hardly "EPIC FAIL" worthy, 'fail' would be closer...but you did still recognize it, so it did succeed ;)
a pun that doesnt work which causes unnecessary suffering
it isn't a pun..."A pun (or paronomasia) is a phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect." - Wikipedia
and if you 'suffered' from that...lol, you need to lighten up.
well, i might be mistaken .
what exactly are a nano tata's ?
i thought maybe it was small tits , but i couldn't be sure.
Lifespan is less that its price... unless you dont' use it
eco? making cars to be used by people that could never afford them before doesn't sound very 'eco'...
the cars wouldnt be made for people that couldnt afford them . it would stop people from buying the 10 year old 4 door saloon they were going to buy and opt for this.
but , yeah, in 10 years times these would be affordable to those that cant afford them now. lol
Dude,
Your education is an epic failure. What you can't believe is not impossible. That such a car is made in India, way better that the hyped up western guzzlers seem to have got you. Be happy in your world, and dont bother thinking.
The design for the eco friendly version is already up on instructables
http://www.instructables.com/id/Toddler-Flinstone-Car/
http://www.fashionfunky.com/2008/04/gm_announces_tata_nano_competi.php
Tell us how you feel about GM now. If it is any different than what you talk of Nano, consider yourself a racist.
The Future Tata Motorcycle
http://www.uberreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/hemi%20trike.jpg
That's bad ass ;)
I understood it almost immediately. You sir, failed.
This car is cheaper than buying my girlfriend some fake tatas.
there should be a strict trade-in policy in place for current car owners in india to get this, with the initiative being that the old shitboxes they drive now would be *replaced* by these, not simply flood the market so that everyone and their grandma picks one of these up.
at a time when there's a major oil crisis and there's a push for sweeping changes to the kinds of cars we drive, is it really a step in the right direction to give the general public an even cheaper way to clog the roads with gas powered vehicles?
why is the 'greener' option only a whisper at this point and not what they planned from the beginning? the whole situation seems like a big missed opportunity.
Why don't you deny yourself the right to convenient transportation before denying other people the same rights that you have.
Besides, don't you think people who don't own cars should be the ones given the chance to own one? The people who've already had vehicle should stop driving theirs. Seems fairer to me.
Better way of doing it .. every year, basing on total allowable national carbon emission, give every person an annual carbon emissions allowance (which they can buy/sell from other people). So each person can only use a certain amount of fuel (or more specifically emit a certain amount of CO2) ..unless they buy credits from others via auction. Then you don't have this mess of the government denying cars to people who may really need one to advance heir economic status.
wow u talk a lot on Indian cars and oil prices, but not yet started on guzzlers you drive, have you?
put the numbers dude - amount of gas spent in US and in India.
Not that I condone American consumption -- I do think we need to conserve way more and invest in cleaner more efficient technologies -- but if you look at the numbers:
U.S. GDP is like 21% of the world's GDP.
U.S. CO2 emissions are like 20% of the world's anthro CO2 emissions.
India is about the same ratio:
GDP about 4.5%
CO2 emissions 4%
So, the introduction of cars to many more people in India will change that ratio. It may allow people in India to be more productive and thus raise the GPD as well as raising the CO2 emissions. But just from a global standpoint, it would be better to not follow the western approach of living in suburbia and commuting by personal car 20 miles.
There is this assumed notion that cars are the best. But they are not. I'd rather have a metro system like London or New York than a car. But alas, in Los Angeles no such thing exists.
I see that there are many Top Gear fans on Engadget. And many feel the urge to copy Jezza and co. rather than think up their own jokes.
Let's just hope they don't slap the Land Rover badge on this here thing.
Let's see, 100,000 scooter riders move up to 100,000 of these. And you think demand for gasoline is crazy NOW?
it seats more than one.
Maths? whats maths? whats zero? whats one?
http://www.fashionfunky.com/upload/2008/07/02/2008-tata-nano-6.jpg
Is that the speedo in the middle?
Absolute bargain at USD $2200 if the article is right. Of course with shipping and local dealer mark-up who knows what this will cost in a 'rich' country.
I quite like the simple design and beige colour of the internals. Also quite surprised Toyota haven't sued them for their T logo :)
Yeah, well I think it looks like Charmander.
I'm not a big fan of this due to its road-clogging capability, but as is constantly mentioned, its meant to replace scooters for families. What I find annoying is people automatically assuming that an Indian product is inferior due to where it originated from. "deathbox" and references to "Yugo" are unwarranted. Is this what people say when they see a Smart Car? Actually they probably do, but I feel the attitude would more venomous when coming from an up-and-coming industrial power.
What is the most annoying is people's attitude in developed countries regarding India and China's rising fuel consumption. After not lifting a finger during America's SUV addiction until it was too late, we're going to complain about Indians driving little tiny cars? While I don't agree that more cars are the answer to anything, it is complete hypocrisy. Maybe if there were some kind of example set, India and China would be developing different cars. Our attitudes were defined by cheap oil, and so it remains.
This is the way to go.. A new world paradigm shift. greener and better cars which do not burn fossil fuels.. Remember you have all the liberty to hack the car.. Put an electric motor.. add solar panels. battery packs plugins etc etc .. so Sky is the limit to your innovation. Go on change the world
Well the fact is there is no one in the world who has made a car at this good cost factor and quality, I repeat, no one. Nano has done every Indian proud, and apparently many *fancy*, *better* car companies have started *aping* the concept. So there goes the joke - western *great* companies aping Indian company and failing miserably at it. They will produce guzzler models that look hideous and cost way over Nano. Good luck bozos, the joke is on you.
It seems the people writing comments on this site are uneducated drunkards. Something is not going to go into their head, and I won't tell what. Guys be happy, get yourself looted by those *shiny* companies out there n dont bother about Nano. Just like I won't bother putting comments!