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January 11, 2008
India's Tata Motors unveiled its $2,500 Nano car at the Auto Show in New Delhi on Thursday and the company expects to sell millions of the four-door, 625 cc rear-wheel drive cars in a country with a population of 1.1 billion but where only about seven in 1,000 have cars.
(At the other end of the scale, Tata, India's largest conglomerate with sales of $29 billion last year, is also currently in the midst of negotiations to acquire luxury marques Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.)
But back to the modest Nano which is certainly very elemental indeed. Indeed, Americans might be excused for wondering why anyone would want to buy such an simple car. But when you've been balancing your family on a scooter everyday or moving along at less than five mph while looking up the ass of a donkey, the Nano must look like a real nice alternative.
Indeed, this is truly a Phase 2 of the people's car, with Phase 1 having taken place in Europe following WWII with the introduction of the Volkswagen Beetle in Germany, the Fiat 500 in Italy, the Citroen 2CV in France and Morris Minor and Mini in England.
(Come to think of it, maybe the introduction of the Ford Model T in the U.S. 100 years ago was the first people's car.)
But in Europe following the devestation of WWII, millions of people who had formerly been limited to walking, bicycling or riding in horse- or donkey-drawn carts, finally had access to the freedom of the internal combusion engine.
Of course, any potential increase in the number of cars has enormous implications in terms of congestion and pollution. Consider that one billion cars are expected to be on the world's roads by 2010, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal in 2006, which is about 25 percent more than are on the roads today.
But for the time being, the little Tata Nano offers millions of Indians the kind of freedoms and opportunities we in the developed world take for granted, and that is a very good thing indeed.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 11:33 AM to commentary
| Permalink
A hidden racist !!
The part abt looking up a donkeys ass is not nice at all.
You're not part of the agenda so why comment at all ?
Posted by: free world on January 12, 2008 10:39 AM
Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published.
