Tata Nano: World's Cheapest Car

1. Christophe
   January 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pm

   adhesive replace welding? sounds like you'll be able to built one from spare parts by scouting the roadsides...

2. Tom
   January 10th, 2008 at 11:42 pm

   One month after they come out you will, anyways.

3. Edward
   January 11th, 2008 at 12:31 am

   Poor people cannot have affordable cars because it is bad for the environment. Why do news outlets (and blogs) publish such crap?

4. Pudifoot
   January 11th, 2008 at 12:36 am

   cool! i want a pieceofcrapmobile!

5. Vako
   January 11th, 2008 at 12:59 am

   So it's a Vespa with a plastic box glued to it.

6. ambassdor
   January 11th, 2008 at 1:30 am

   if that's not a death trap i dunno what is

7. fz
   January 11th, 2008 at 2:13 am

   Can it go up hills?

8. Kaboom
   January 11th, 2008 at 2:52 am

   Well, good luck to them, I say. Cheaper than any previous motor-cycle alternative, and a lot safer to crash.

   Got me stuffed why the down-trodden poor always have to be down-trodden and poor - it's a bit like the greens/lefties/watermelons just don't like uppity brown people!

   Bravo for an ingenious indigenous solution to a mobility problem (TOTAL lack of safety on overloaded, underpowered motorcycles).

   Infrastructure, gridlock and overcrowding, now there's a First World problem to solve.

9. Skipweasel
   January 11th, 2008 at 7:12 am

   It's a scooter with four wheels and some body work. It'll be a good deal safer than a scooter! Trouble is, it'll take up a lot more room on the road than a scooter or a bike, though having a more modern engine it probably won't make pollution much worse than scooters. I can see this turning out to be a really backward move unless the road network improves to keep pace - which it might well not.

10. K!P
    January 11th, 2008 at 7:27 am

    adhesive joints can be stronger than welds, no weakening of the material...

11. Pol x
    January 11th, 2008 at 8:14 am

    Well, if truth be told the reason why the west and the afore mentioned lefties greenies etc can have big cars etc is that

    THE WEST BLOODY INVENTED EVERYTHING.

    And now the west is the first to twig that something needs to be done about the emmisions, impending environmental catastrophe etc.

    The thing is , it's not like kids playing on swing, we don't all have to get equal shots on the swing.

    Thems are the breaks, the 3rd world either drums it's heels on the ground and insists it will have an oldsmobile OR it acts now and doesn't drown.

    NOt both.

    not fair, but anyone who excpected to it to be fair would be a fool.

12. MoonCake
    January 11th, 2008 at 8:46 am

    if third world countries were really starving for automobiles (like it says India is), their roadways would be baren. cars are of no necessity in cities, even in westernized societies. we have this sense of urgency to get everybody on the same page as us because we think new = better. developers don't think long-term when it comes to vehicles and technologies, evident of our "need" for upgrades.

13. SW
    January 11th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    how about solving the hunger and poverty problem first?

14. maximillion
    January 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am

    @kaboom: hahahaha tell another. I don't think it's the greens who have a problem with brown people.

15. rgreen
    January 11th, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Or the lefties, Max! Sounds like Kaboom has a little "projection" syndrome.

16. Kaboom
    January 12th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Max and Rgreen, perhaps you should Google "Argumentum ad Hominem", to assist you with your future discourses.

    Care to expound upon why the greens or lefties don't have a problem with brown people?

    The unmentionable Malthusian approach, particularly in the green camp, is patently obvious, and I would be interested in hearing an intelligent contrary viewpoint.

    Not vacuous ad hominem.

17. Sammy
    January 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    ...And of course the thing won't be available here in North America because it doesn't meet "Standards".

    (In other words it threatens Ford GM and Chrysler, manufacturers who have been producing vehicles of this sort of quality for some time now.)

    I wonder if you buy two and donate one to a poor person in a third world country, will you be allowed to keep the other one? How bright is the screen? After you crank it for five minutes, how long does it run?

18. SAB
    January 12th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    BE A PART !!!! NOT BREAK APART
    this is absolutly a copied idea of smart cars ..
    i dont understand with so many talented car designer
    why cant people make innovative cars.. and i think its
    sad the car compnies follow a very self centered approach towards
    design .. even after realising indian economy booming up ..
    the companies are creating mess for the country ..
    imagine the roads after 10 years in delhi ..
    will be full of these cars .. and every person will have a
    mobile and this car .. because at certain point of time ..
    easy loans and easy installments will lead a car to everyone ..
    why cant people think of the future for this country .
    why cant we have the same speed of the way we manufacturing cars ,
    into the common transport infrastructure collective by the automobile
    companies with real time solutions they have to be serious in design
    what they offer to public , the idea of india is to grow without any
    painful yet an assured future which is comfortable and in the long run ..
    think about the world running away from gas and carbon fuels ,,
    and india is falling into the hands of the oil cpmpanies ,,
    and desperation of every person who will drive the car in next 20 years
    ,,
    its a clear and alarming , india need realise wake up call for those
    sleeping ..
    i knw it sounds like absultly absurd that some comments like unwanted
    ,,like this but the idea of being a innovator or designer holds
    responsibility of creating a smart solutions

    i disagree if this car is for villages just beacuse its cheap ..
    the idea is still not comunicated
    .. we cannot use the microscope to study stars and galaxies

    be a part!!! not break apart ...!!

19. Kaboom
    January 13th, 2008 at 1:37 am

    SAB, it's nothing like a smart car at all. The smart car is relatively safe to crash in (despite its diminutive dimensions), and is comparably extremely expensive.

    Think of the Tata Nano as a motor scooter with a roof.

    Otherwise, just let the brown people ride their motor scooters with Mum on the back, the eldest son straddling the front wheel, and the daughter balancing on the rear mudguard.

    Seriously, have you ever been to India?

    This is an incredible breakthrough for a significant proportion of the population, which in the past has been denied to them by the self-interest of the commercial motor vehicle manufacturers. It is truly innovative, just in terms of cost, let alone anything else.

20. bob
    January 13th, 2008 at 10:25 am

    lets call it the Suicide car.. more donors *sigh

21. marieissah
    January 14th, 2008 at 12:18 am

    Hope it'll reach the Philippines, then eventually Filipino will modify it..

22. Mark
    January 30th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Quote:

    This is an incredible breakthrough for a significant proportion of the population, which in the past has been denied to them by the self-interest of the commercial motor vehicle manufacturers. It is truly innovative, just in terms of cost, let alone anything else.

    End Quote...

    Well said...I agree...and they should have some fun with it...http://www.trickmytata.com

23. eric
    February 9th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

    do you have to wear a helmet

24. eric
    February 9th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

    or what about a weight limit

25. Chithra KarunaKaran
    February 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am

    Fun without public responsibility? Is that Neatorama's mission? Think about it.

    The Rise of the Car Nazis:
    Ratan and the Tata Wannabes
    Chithra Karunakaran, Feb 09, 2008

    Ratan Tata has made an illegal Left turn in a no-car zone. The Nano is a no-no. Bad for India, Bad for the developing world. bad for the poor.

    If the Nano is manufactured this basically lets Government off the hook. They will not need to commit funds to mass transit in cities,towns and rural areas.

    Can industry-hungry West Bengal help to rethink the Nano 'personal car' project and instead develop into a manufacturing hub for MASS PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION? Do we need more cars OR more and better public use transport -- buses, subway trains, rail? With the proposed launch of the Nano car, every central and local government in the developing world is off the hook -- they will no longer have to commit political will and infrastructure funds to provide public mass transit. A cheap car? Cheap for the environment?

    The people of India and I am one of them, do NOT need a mis-named people's car. We need a People's Bus, A People's Mass Transit, a vastly expanded People's Railway, we need PUBLIC MASS TRANSPORTATION that is ecologically sustainable and delivers a public convenience that meets the needs of our underserved Indian URBAN AND RURAL masses and is the envy of, and a model for, the entire world. I proudly count myself among these masses, even though I teach in the US and live and work in India only about six months of the year.

    Q.Why did Ratan Tata and the Tata Group choose to put their wholly admirable "frugal engineering" expertise into a private car and not into making buses and mass transportation vehicles? A.Corporate greed and personal ambition.

    The Tata Group has decades of engineering knowhow in the heavy truck sector. Why didn't they build on this experience and come out with buses and other mass transport innovations? Again the answer is corporate greed and selfish personal ambition. Ratan Tata has absolutely no stake in the Greater Collective Good (GCG). Tata is all about profit. Tata is all about a narrow self-serving short term view in which he and Tata Group can make a quick buck and now unfortunately the India Govt. has awarded Ratan a Padma Vibhushan. That PV should have gone to Medha Patkar the Narmada Bachao Andolan actvism pioneer and she would have probably declined it. She would be right to do so. No point accepting a Padma Vibhushan from a Govt. that is committed to predatory capitalism against its own people.There are only a handful of folks like Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Anna Hazare, P. Sainath and a few others who cannot be bought and sold by corporate interests and criminalized politicians.

    What many Indians (especially the avidly consuming, politically apathetic and ethically indefensible middle class in India) fail to appreciate is that a fabulous city like New York where I live about six months a year is heavily invested in mass public transportation. NYC has been heavily invested in mass transit for over half a century.

    I don't own a car either in the U.S. or India. And I don't plan to own one, certainly not the Nano. I walk. It's smart not to be an obesity stat. I ride the buses and trains in India and I am proud to say that I adamantly refuse to ride in a car in India.

    In New York, I do have a bicycle. Tens of thousands like me in New York ride our magnificent, er often tardy and continually underfunded subways of the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). I can get all around town and all the outer boros and to JFK airport for $2 and then I am happy to pay another $5 to get me on the public mass transportation called the AirTrain right into the airport terminals. We ordinary folks (mainly the middleclass and the aspiring middleclass of New York City) fought long and hard at public hearings and through legislative lobbying, for the funding of mass transit in preference to car-choked highways -- and we got it. We didn't get everything we wanted but there's always a next time at a public hearing or a court testimony.That's participatory democracy.

    Even our Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg rides the subway everyday to work. It's a great feeling to get on a train that runs under New York and to know that we are contributing zero pollution to our wonderful city. That is precisely what we need in India. NOT crazy Ratan ("I have no watan") Tata and his no-no Nano.

    Let's get real. India cannot afford to manufacture and dispose a paper cup, let alone produce yet another private car. We should not be following the U.S. model of predatory capitalism. The U.S. model of endless consumption is ecologically unsustainable. It is emphatically not the model for India.

    Both the centre and the states in India must urgently invest in public mass transit which they have criminally neglected and disproportionately taxed.

    The Nano represents a vivid test case for our civil society and the need for urgent development of a Critical Environmental Studies in schools and colleges to research such complex issues. I have presented the above ideas in India during conferences on Environmental Sustainability and will not rest until such proposals gain policy implementation.

    The Gandhian post-revolutionary democratic Indian nation-state deserves a lofty vision, mission and policies that affirm the public trust. Public mass transportation that is ecologically sustainable is part of that noble public trust.

    Note: in a subsequent blog I have cut and pasted all or nearly all of Tata's own comments ("From the Chairman's Desk") on the Nano.

    Let the reader perform her/his own critical analysis of whether the Nano serves the Greater Collective Good (GCG).

    Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
    City University of New York (CUNY)
    http://www.ethicaldemocracy.blogspot.com

26. Tek Bahadur Rawal
    August 11th, 2009 at 2:10 am

    It is very nice and funny for middle class family, I liked it very much. Actually I am from Nepal and would like bye it. When will it inter in Nepal many Nepalese people waiting for NANO CAR.

    Specially Thanks for TATA which understand all middle class people thoughts and hope that TATA NANO will manufacture better model.

    Thank you very much.

    Tek Rawal / Nepal

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