How To Build a $2500 Car
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 8.08
The New York Times notes that Tata's new car is "expected to retail for as little as the equivalent of $2,500, or about the price of the optional DVD player on the Lexus LX 470 sport utility vehicle." How do they do it? Strip it of safety and environmental standards and just about everything else.
India's Tata Group Chairman, Ratan Tata.
It is a whole new way of making cars; the Times writes "Some analysts are predicting that just as the Japanese popularized kanban (just in time) and kaizen (continuous improvement), Indians could export a kind of “Gandhian engineering,” combining irreverence for conventional ways of thinking with a frugality born of scarcity.
The model appearing on Thursday has no radio, no power steering, no power windows, no air-conditioning and one windshield wiper instead of two, according to suppliers and Tata’s own statements. Bucking prevailing habits, the car lacks a tachometer and uses an analog rather than digital speedometer.
The Times notes that it is not going to be very clean:
Critics of the Tata car have asked how a car that prunes thousands of dollars off regular prices can possibly comply with safety and environmental norms. The answer may be that the car comes at a particular moment in India’s development, when the country is affluent enough to support strong demand for automobiles but still less regulated than developed countries.
Michael Walsh, a pollution consultant and former United States Environmental Protection Agency regulator, said that a car so cheap was likely to lack the complex technology to maintain its initial level of emissions and that without such technology cars could soon be producing four to five times their initial pollution level.
“It strikes me as impossible that such a vehicle will be a very clean vehicle over the life of the vehicle,” Mr. Walsh said. ::New York Times
Read Christine on All Eyes on India: The Future of Transportation Impacts?
It strikes me as very possible that a lightweight car with a small engine would be far cleaner over the life of the vehicle than a 3 ton car that probably used more than 10x the energy to produce it than this car will.
"It strikes me as very possible that a lightweight car with a small engine would be far cleaner over the life of the vehicle than a 3 ton car that probably used more than 10x the energy to produce it than this car will."
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I was going to raise a similar point. Nitpicking that it isn't valuable to have a former EPA official who has not seen the car say that it must be unsafe. That was until I read the Tata Chairman's own quote that:
“We will have far lower emissions than today’s low-end cars,” he said. But, he added, “the emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash test.”
It's good that he's honest, but that is where my comfort with his openness stops.
I wonder how they manage the heat the filling process will produce.
Agreed. It may not have the expensive controls(which, don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate the value of those) of most modern vehicles, but producing only 30hp in a very minimalistic and lightweight vehicle, it can potentially be more eco-[logical|nomical] than a modern vehicle.
I would also assume that this won't last for 300k miles like most modern vehicles do. This can be seen as a downside, but the upshot hinges on this: Most people don't drive a vehicle for 300k miles and the worsening of emissions over the life of the car will be necessarily cut short.
For me, the most exciting thing about this car is the belt-driven, continuously variable transmission. I have seen one of these in an old daff (or something like it) and thought that it was a cool idea.
Excuse me - silly question, but why are we worried about pollution controls on a car that is powered by AIR?
Per the article http://cliffschecter.bravenewfilms.org/blog/23381-a-car-that-runs-on-air-available-in-the-u-s-ha-ta-ta-tata?play=1
It sounds like scare mongers (ooh no, no pollution), afraid they won't get every penny of petro profits they think they have coming to them.
"Excuse me - silly question, but why are we worried about pollution controls on a car that is powered by AIR?"
That's a different car. This one is powered by a very crude petrol engine - think 30 hp lawn mower engine.
http://www.mindfully.org/Air/Lawn-Mower-Pollution.htm
“We will have far lower emissions than today’s low-end cars,” he said. But, he added, “the emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash test.”
It's good that he's honest, but that is where my comfort with his openness stops.
Tommy,
I would think that this car is a replacement for motor scooters, so any crash protection is a step up, especially when you have parents riding on scooters with their kid(s) all without helmets.
Not comforting exactly, but I also give them credit for honesty.
The bad news is since they're so cheap there'll be more of them on the road now.
Im placing my money on the cars not holding up very long.
what happens to the cars once they are no longer operational? my bet is they end up in scrap yards or the metal more likely plastic is melted down creating even more pollution.
the majority of costs in building quality cars are in craftsmanship thanks for trying to eliminate my job with these inferior "cars"
forget all the naysayers - this car will do for India's transportation what the mobile phone did for conversations. At last - a car the masses can afford.
Consumption in the US is old news, but in India, it is new hat. This - and other similarly smartly designed everyday consumer objects for third-world countries - will continue to boost their economy by promoting consumption, bringing them closer to breaking out of the slum-living. Its a necessary part of their growth, and yes, pollution WILL be a by-product of it. But in the end, more affluent India is a good thing, not a bad thing. There are those that hate consumerism, but once out of the bushman way of life, the only way to escape dispair is through economic growth via mass consumption.
I forget who was the researcher that showed the progression of man from industrial society to tackling the dirty past of industrial growth, and how it was necessary to go through all those steps. India is now entering the first phase - one we went through 100 years ago...
"I forget who was the researcher that showed the progression of man from industrial society to tackling the dirty past of industrial growth, and how it was necessary to go through all those steps. India is now entering the first phase - one we went through 100 years ago..."
Why can't countries like India and China learn from our mistakes and skip some of the steps?
Those that fail to understand history are doomed to repeat it (or something real close to that!)
Just like an OLPC; a car for the masses. Way Cool!!
This is India's Mini (the first one, not the BMW crap) or Fiat 500 (the first one not the new one) or the Citreon 2CV.
It's a pity we're not building smaller, lighter, slower more frugal cars still instead of the overly safe, overly heavy, overly thirsty cars we now build instead of the Mini, 500 and 2CV.
Just because it is printed in the NYT doesn't make everything true. Go do some fact checking of your own. The car actually adheres to the latest EU emission norms.
I love TreeHugger btw.
Wilfried Aulbur, MD & CEO, Daimler-Chrysler: "The philosophy of Rs 1 lakh car that does provide safe transport for families that are currently riding high level motorcycles is very commendable."
If everyone who owned a car drove one of these instead the world would be a better place. The problem is that making them that cheap means the millions of people who couldn’t afford a car now can. But who are we to judge who can pollute like us? This car claims 4.55 / 3.85 L/km fuel consumption, better than most production cars though emissions per litre burnt may be higher which is a worry. India is simply catching up to the 1st world. Unfortunately if everyone on the planet lived like the 1st world we would need more planets!
I would bet the car would actually be quite durable as it is simple proven technology, similar to the Honda cub scooters that are still found in Asia.
Safety? Who cares! I’m a motorbike rider!
I'm in the UK and I don't think we in the developed countries have the right to do other than cajole third world countries to skip some of the most polluting phases we went through.
Issues such as whole-life environmental costs are rarely calculated and we often scrap perfectly serviceable vehicles because some over-priced electronic control box has failed. Manufacturers should be forced to provide whole-life strategies for their vehicles and provide cheap service parts enabling vehicles to be well maintained for efficiency and pollution control. All manufactured products from cell phones to autos should have a residual exchange value legislated by law so that there would simply be no good reason to dump them without recycling. Good luck to Tata !
I'm in the UK and I don't think we in the developed countries have the right to do other than cajole third world countries to skip some of the most polluting phases we went through.
Issues such as whole-life environmental costs are rarely calculated and we often scrap perfectly serviceable vehicles because some over-priced electronic control box has failed. Manufacturers should be forced to provide whole-life strategies for their vehicles and provide cheap service parts enabling vehicles to be well maintained for efficiency and pollution control. All manufactured products from cell phones to autos should have a residual exchange value legislated by law so that there would simply be no good reason to dump them without recycling. Good luck to Tata !
Im placing my money on the cars not holding up very long.
I disagee with this comment, from my experience the simpler the car the longer its life. Its easy to fix! After all 2500$ in not a small amount of money.
Okay, they can build a car for $2500 that is flimsy, slow, and pollution-prone.
Why can't they build a $5000 car that is built at least as solid as an old VW Bug, has modern pollution standards, and can go 80 mph ?