Under $3000: The Race To Build Really Cheap Cars
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.24.07
Renault-Nissan is planning on building a car for under $3000. The price could be as low as $2500, which is 40% less than the least expensive sub-compact car available today. The Chief Executive of the company, Carlos Ghosn, made this announcement at a plant-opening on April 4. An Indian carmaker, Tata Motors, plans to launch a $2500 car next year. This race for the really ceap car could have a major impact on the industry as a whole.
Despite being priced under $3000, these car will be designed to be comfortable and safe. They will also be engineered from the ground up — stripped-down versions of outdated designs won't cut it. Tata's model is a four door vehicle with a 33-horsepower engine, and a top speed of around 80 mph. The automaker claims it will even pass a crash test. Whatever the lowest sticker price turns out to be, the discounting trend will hit cars across the board, from minis to SUVs.
The market for these cars is huge. According to Business Week:
There's no lack of potential customers: Hundreds of millions of Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, Russians, and others will likely join the middle class in the coming decade, and cars are sure to be at the top of their shopping lists. As a result, the global car market is polarizing: The luxury segment continues to grow, cheap cars boom, and everything else gets squeezed. By 2012, the market for vehicles priced under $10,000 is likely to reach 18 million cars, or a fifth of world auto sales, according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. That's up from 12 million today.
I'm sure these small, inexpensive cars get many miles per gallon. I wonder if any of the carmakers will be considering biofuel or plug-in electric models.
:: Via Business Week
It's ironic. Tens or maybe hundreds of millions more people can now afford cars. It will actually hasten the demise of automobiles for personal transportation. That's because the remaining oil will be used up all the more quickly.
Yep, dealers always like to start you off with small, cheap samples......before you get hooked for life ;)
Disposable cars -- great "green" idea.
I don't think it matters much whether these cars have low emissions or get fantastic MPG. The bigger issue is that these cars will turn developing nations away from investing in public transportation and toward increased spending for automobile infrastructure.
"Disposable cars -- great "green" idea."
In a poor country, a $3k car is definitely not disposable.
Ah well folks.... At least they're not 'cheap' SUV's or v8's. At 33hp, I doubt it's gonna guzzle too much gas. It would be encouraging if hybrids could go down the same path, but anybody tackling the problem of affordability is likely to force more competitive prices on all cars, as you point out.
Back in the 1930's, I remember Germany produced a car with these principles. I'm sure the treehugger audience remembers 'The Peoples' Car'. They sold a few - from 1938 to 2003.
For folks I've confused, the car's also known as the VW beetle. 21.5 Million were sold.
We have seen what the "car" culture has accomplished in America (Gas, emissions and lack of publish transportation).
Now imagine 1.5 BILLION new cars on the road globally over the next 10 years. I guess we will be purchasing "air" from local distributors and killing each other for drinkable water.
$3,000 death traps!
I think I'll pass on the "less car than a geo metro". Thanks... lol new car with 33hp no options and priced cutting corners on safety or.... used car with leather, sunroof, electric windows, tint, alarm, a/c, radio, at least 100hp and is actually engineered to last and be safe in a wreck.... I'll take the latter thank you.
I live in Beijing, China and I must say, the new $5000 QQ (pictured above) is making an impact. They came out just a few years ago and are now almost as popular here as the audi A6.
If it gets 30+ miles to the gallon, I'll take 2 right now.
Keeping in mind that chinese are already preparing similar stuff, you have to make some counter attacks :)
Let's make a really cheap yet durable bus. If we can get the cost of a bus down to $100000 (compared to $500000 now), we will be able to expand our transit systems very cheaply and low-income countries will be able to replace their old buses (which we retired long ago).
This may be even more devastating news than the hundreds of coal fired power plants china will start using in the days and months ahead!
Think about it.....now that the alternative transportation sector gets some lift, the giant manufacturers do everything they can to sabotage the mission (which, for me, is putting all my bucks on sustainable energy) - by dropping the price of cars down to absurd levels.
The flood of new cars is exactly what china (and the rest of the globe) can't handle. We don't have the oil, new technologies are not ready to take over - we gotta stop --unless we LIKE the idea of catastrophic social instability and stunted economic growth.
World War III is not too far behind the latter....please read "PLAN B 2.0" by Lester Brown ---it's amazing!
I want one, now!!
;-)
I would buy one in a heartbeat. Great work commute car.
http://www.bloggingwv.com
It would be fantastic if a model was offered with a diesel powerplant. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but Biodiesel may very well be the best fuel option in the coming years and offering an economy vehicle with a powerplant that can run on biodiesel without major (or any, in most cases) modifications would be a major step towards public acceptance of the fuel and maybe the first shot in the war against the corn lobbyists. Screw ethanol.
When is someone going to bring out a viable electric car?
Better idea is to make higher quality public transportation. car cause just trouble and expense, petrol, insurance, tax this that.
but what is the real cost of this car? I hate the idea that whole new developing nations can be destroyed by little inexpensive cars.
Great, Walmart can now sell cars alongside nazi tshirts and piss-poor Plasma TV's
that thing is UGLY
This is excellent. I would buy one of those cars in a minute. For about the down payment of a Honda or Toyota in the US, I could have a car PAID FOR with NO PAYMENTS!!!
The sad thing is that motor is about the same horsepower as a Yamaha Majesty 400cc scooter. The 0-60 time must be absolutely horrible.
Remember the 1984 Honda Civic CRX that got 67 MPG. I think it had roughly the same amount of horsepower back then. That would be great if these cars could get over 60 MPG without the need for paying for an expensive Hybrid.
this is really really good! now, we can all own a car. but on the down side, the air pollution is gonna drastically worsened.
The Pandora Effect.
Good idea, but a 33 HP engine? I know the thing is supposed to be cheap, but dang, that's just downright pathetic. It seems like it would be frustrating to drive.
Cheap cars only mean more traffic problems. With $10K car you reach work in 20 mins with a $3k on the car - drive to work - couple of hours! Not to mention the already mentioned issue related to environment. The trick is not to make newer cheaper cas but to cut down the price on the existing ones.
Wow, I am surprised that they can really make them that cheap. I can't imagine them making a large profit on them.
I guess it's the drug dealers mentallity. The first one is cheap, then you are hooked on it!
Toss is an e85 sensor to make these things flex-fuel vehicles and you're good to go!
The volkswagon is back!
Remember whe the original bug was advertised for $1999 in das states? My dad bought one of those. We still talk about the cheapest new car he ever bought.
too bad we can not buy this car in the US. I could o for somthing real cheep and is it gets wrecked etc just replace it. Seems 2 years of full coverage insurance will cover the price of this little car.
sounds great for college students like me
I currently drive a Stella scooter that I bought for $3k new and any car has to be safer than that. The scooter still gets better gas mileage but I'd still take one in a heartbeat. I don't need anything more than basic basic basic transportation.
Why all this talk about Mass Transit and being negative toward this. I read this and i think about all the poor families who may all the sudden be able to buy a viable vehicle to get to work and so forth. And who says it has to be an eco-crisis? With what some of the manufacturers are doing, it won't be long before the hybrids become more and more attainable. As with any new technology, it will be out of reach to start, but if you see that Lexus now has a hybrid, and even Ford has plans to expand their hybrids, I have to think that all in all we're moving in the right direction. (as far as eco friendly cars are concerend.) After this goes on and hybrid technology becomes cheaper, who says it can't be put into a sub 3k vehicle. I"m really not sure why the 'treehugger' community is lashing out at this. But I don't know everything.
What a stupid idea.. maybe if these cars were powered by electricity ok but putting millions of new car owners on the market is definitely not a green choice
Give me a break. If you guys are so against the creation of a low cost vehicle so that many people will be able to own a car because it will mean more people burning oil shows your stupidity. You should get off the internet since all of these servers are being powered by resource burning power plants and the RF being released from these electronic components is probably killing some rare endangered moth somewhere. You horrible moth killers! I hope a tree falls on your ass mid hug.
Dumb shits.
hahah last poster cracks me up.
I get a kick out of people who think that hybrid cars are so eco-friendly. Over the lifetime of the car, it still won't make up for the emissions it took to manufacture it; making it actually less eco-friendly than a v8 mercedes S-class. I get tired of people ignoring the little ice age we are coming out of. I get tired of the idiots who ignore the fact that life flourishes even more abundantly than before after an oil spill, and caribou populations thrive near the alaska pipeline.
i'm all for stuff that makes sense though.. like biodiesel and solar grid-tie systems.
"Over the lifetime of the car, it still won't make up for the emissions it took to manufacture it; making it actually less eco-friendly than a v8 mercedes S-class. "
Cite your sources, Jeff. I'm tired of people falling for the "cool contrarian" bullshit story. 80 to 90% of the lifecycle of a car is the gas burned, not building it, and hybrid batteries can be recycled no problem, so can the electric motors. Most of the complexity of a car is the gasoline engine, not electric part.
technology is neutral. the people behind aren't. it's exciting news. but what gets me more excited is how the 'greenies' will adapt the knowledge behind the technology for sustainable development. i'd like to see hundreds of groups, companies, cooperatives, individuals offering different and AFFORDABLE green cars or mass transport, or single transporter (bikes, cycles...)
technology for the people!
I think this is a good idea to help people who can't affor a new car replace all those very old cars they own that contaminate so much and as an effect I see a bunch of old cars being disposed/recycled, although the car companies might be playing with fire since this will dramatically reduce the sales on the expensive models if the consumer creates a taste for this cute little toy and forgets about cool looks, it's gonna be good for the consumer in the end if it happens, and of course I thinkl this will reduce emmissions by removing old cars from the streets
This will make the car industry like the printer industry. They'll have to find replaceable parts they can charge us for. Since they don't own oil companies I'm sure you can expect repairs and services to go up along with gas prices from the increased market for gas.
33 horsepower??? that car can have at least 70+ MPG, but 80 M/h maximum.........you cant drive this in highway
Anyone ever hear of a little thing called the Velorex? I think that having a small efficient auto is great, but i do think that having the engine be biodeisel run is the best idea on this post. But even then, it should get good miliage, because even biodeisel is a finite resource (only so much can be made in any given year, and you still need other crops for food).
Here's a little page that has some really interesting cars on it for you to ponder. www.microcarmuseum.com
is there enough room in the back seat where i can keep my kids locked up while i attend fuctions for opie and anthony, being their general its very important i have a large back seat.
My work schedule for the next week.
Wed 5PM-12AM
Thurs 5PM-12AM
Fri 5PM-12AM
The bus schedule in town for the next week.
Mon-Fri 7AM-5PM
Also IF everything is runing on time it takes 2 hours to get anywhere. If not I can get stranded many miles in the wrong direction with no bus comming for hours.
I have a car... but if I didn't how am I to get around?
With cities being so crowded now, what good is 0-60 in 3.9 seconds if traffic is all bumper to bumper?
I used to have a fast car and got rid of it. I saw no more need for speed with all of the traffic being so conjested.
All we need is basic transportation now, just like they have in Europe. All you need is something that gets from POINT A to POINT B. I would recommend that we all get scooters, but when it rains, then you're not in a good situation.
I think this little car combined with owning a scooter would be a great combo. When you need to pick up groceries or a passenger, this cheap car would be great. When you need to get to work or just to visit a friend, a scooter would be great.
Take a look into the Yamaha Majesty 400. That's one of the best made scooters out there and it can easily do 80-100 MPH. I've read posts about people getting up to 75 MPG with it in city/hwy mixed.
You can buy smaller scooters, but they are not safe enough to take on the Interstate.
I used to own a Yamaha Riva 180 back in the late 1980's and people would trip out when they saw me pass them doing 70 MPH with a passenger on the back. Back then I could drive 3-7 days on $1.35 worth of gas.
I drove a 31 horse power car for awhile, it is not as slow as you all think. The pickup will beat any F250 Ford. Gas wise, it beats hybrid hands down.
Drawbacks? don't expect this thing to run great in colorado. When you have more than 2 persons, expect it to crawl. If you passes by 18 wheelers, this widget will get push to the side of the highway.
This car will not clog the traffic as it is super nimble. It is sensitive to gas peddle.
Great car in the city and small commute. I certainly not going to drive this in a highway.
"The bigger issue is that these cars will turn developing nations away from investing in public transportation and toward increased spending for automobile infrastructure."
How much expendable money do the poor have to spend on cars instead of the more affordable option of public transportation? Even then, look how much more Europeans use public transportation, their wealth is comparable to our nation's.
when its launching in india
By comparison, the last and most powerful Citroen CVs built had 29-30 HP, so 33HP and better aerodynamics sounds pretty good. Acceleration is not fast but absolutely capable in city traffic. On the highway, the only price to pay is downshifting (and slowing down) to climb hills. Biodiesel capabiliry would be even better.