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."

Re:Sounds interesting, but any hope of US?

[superash]

I tried to find some specs, but the site is already slashdotted.

The specs are not out yet. It will be revealed at the auto show.

Unintended Consequences

[titzandkunt]

It's incredible how many people start wading into all kinds of issues with the intent of improving safety without the first notion of what risk really is and how we humans evaluate and cope with it.

Anybody who's work may impact public safety should be forced at gunpoint to at least read Risk [amazon.co.uk] by John Adams. It has much to say about the effects of public safety initiatives and their unintended consequences.

For instance, after the introduction of compulsory seatbelt legislation in the UK, the number of motorists who were killed or seriously injured decreased somewhat. Unfortunately more cyclists and pedestrians were killed or seriousy injured in collisions with motor vehicles, such that the overall number of road deaths increased. Adams attributes the increase to drivers' assessment of their own level of risk being reduced, hence they tended to drive more quickly and in a more dangerous fashion, until their personal risk threshold was restored.

"...The vehicle is aimed at improving driving safety by getting India's masses off their motorbikes and into cars..."

In light of what I said previously, look out for a rise in the overall number of people KSI on India's roads...

T&K.

Re:The problem I see...

[CodeBuster]

why wasn't that a factor in the vehicle's design?!

Because that would add about $500 more to the price of the vehicle (minimum) and they were optimizing the vehicle for cost not for fuel economy, safety, or low emissions. It would still be an improvement however over the equally unsafe and much dirtier two-stroke 3 wheelers and motorcycle taxis with sidecars that are still driving around in India today.

The potholes?

[HungWeiLo]

First they would have to fix the potholes on the roads. When I was in Bangalore, there were numerous holes in the middle of a wide boulevard. You can't use the word "potholes" because these holes can easily swallow a Honda Civic. Plus, they're usually marked and blocked off by only one single traffic cone. So if Bangalore, being a world class tech city, was like this - I can only imagine the less-endowed cities throughout India. You see a lot less of this in China. Not even the third-tier cities away from the coastline.

Some people are not so gung ho about it

[indraneil]

R K Pachauri [wikipedia.org] thinks this will facilitate more gas guzzling on the roads [deccanherald.com], though Tatas are quick to reject [msn.com] it.
Suzuki [financialexpress.com] thinks safety concerns would mount
People are also worried if our roads will be congested by these cars.

Re:Sounds interesting, but any hope of US?

[Fireshadow]

As for the specs:

• 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 [blogspot.com]

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 [nytimes.com] 2 Rediff [rediff.com] 3 Forbes [forbes.com] 4 Business Week [businessweek.com]

Re:Just what the world needs.....

[kaka.mala.vachva]

You're thinking from your point of view. Would you, or anyone else on slashdot give up their cars?

Just because you can afford a good car doesn't mean others can, and its good to see someone caring for the lower end of society. In India you will see 2-4 member families traveling on motorbikes/scooters, and it just isn't safe to hang on to a baby while driving - yet that is the only option these people have. An affordable car will help everyone immensely, and most cars in India target fuel economy very seriously - my car, for instance, gives me 25kmpl on the highway and 18-20 kmpl in the city. Its an 800cc engine, compact, and manages reasonably well on highways - I can drive at 80-100 kmph with ease, and higher than that on Indian roads is anyway risky.

Stop living in heated houses, driving cars with huge engines, and then worry about global warming.

Re:Clearly these people spend little time IN traff

[the_masked_mallard]

The poster clearly has NO idea of what he is talking about. Here are some clarifications

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 ... 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.

The problem with Bangalore is that the cities roads were not designed to take so much traffic. Try going to Delhi and check out the roads there. There is a world of difference. Bangalore is currently facing a population explosion and the traffic problems are the just the result of that.

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.

In Bangalore, many intersections are manned by "traffic contractors", who dont have any legal powers. So, he is powerless in the face of violations and this has nothing to do with the number of violations occuring.

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...)

Indian traffic is dangerous, with a single rule. You only give way to someone bigger than you :P. This makes pedestrians the scum of the earth!

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.

Firstly, the "giant ass Tata trucks" that you refer to are just sold by the Tata group, they dont actually have a fleet of them terrorising the streets. This problem is due to Indian railways moronic freight policies. Higher freight rates are used to subsidize passengers. This means that its often cheaper to send stuff by trucks. Of course, cities like Delhi allow trucks only after 11pm to early morning. If someone is coming along that route on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, you can see large convoys of trucks waiting for entry into the Capital. Unfortunately, it seems to be a free-for-all in Bangalore.

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.

The project was kicked off just a year ago. The fact that Bangalore is built on rocky terrain makes going difficult. You should be a little more tolerant about the Metro officials. Try looking at the Delhi metro, whose team is the epitome of efficiency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi_metro/ [wikipedia.org]

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?!

Totally agree with you, but this issue has more to do with the holy status of cows in Hinduism rather than any concern for the rural farmer.

Re:The negative

[Gordonjcp]

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).

Re:The negative

[upside]

Fuel consumption - true, pollution - debatable. Most bikes don't have catalytic converters so they produce proportionally more pollutants.

A swiss study [sciencedaily.com] concluded 'motorcycles collectively emit 16 times more hydrocarbons, three times more carbon monoxide and a "disproportionately high" amount of other air pollutants compared to passenger cars' though it has also been disputed. [acembike.org]

Re:Future owner of the Jag

[Gordonjcp]

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.

Re:They tried that once....

[Anonymous Coward]

My little car has a 1.1L engine, and happily cruises on the autobahn at 140km/h (87mph) for hours on end. Even in the Alps I've never encountered a place where I couldn't at least maintain the speed limit (120km/h).

Don't confuse a bad implementation with a bad idea.

Re:Sounds interesting, but any hope of US?

[Fallus Shempus]

Go spend a while in Indian traffic

I saw five on a motorbike (a family, including child under one) and about eight was our best guess at the number in a Tuk Tuk (or Auto as they referred to them in Hyderabad) although it was hard to count.

That being said they should be able to fit about 10 in a Tata.

When I was there I had to have a go on the back of a motorbike, and in a Tuk Tuk which had had interesting disco lighting inside.

Re:Balance?

[curtS]

Well, it hasn't worked in Delhi, where I lived for three years, or in Bangalore, where I've just moved. All it means is that instead of a bunch of people who can't ride bikes causing accidents, it'll now be a bunch of people who can't drive causing bigger and better accidents.

The only thing that might drop the accident rate is the near-gridlock in Bangalore will extend to total gridlock, preventing any motorized movement at all.

It's for the scooter/rickshaw market in India

[gelfling]

In India scooters outsell cars 6:1. For any family, getting to an outing requires several trips if they own a scooter. Even if they're crazy and put 2 adults and 2 kids on it. The Tata car is built to infuse that market with a cheap car that can compete on price with getting another scooter and all the troubles associated with being out in the open.

See in India you can already buy a Bajaj 3-wheeler aka motor rickshaw that seats 4 or 5 or more. But they're fairly expensive and they're not really cars per se - they're rickshaws. I may get one myself if gas gets expensive enough. They're registered as motorcycles in the US. And with an 8.5hp engine, max speed about 45mph it's a great around town vehicle.