The Tata People's Car may come to North America
 

Some of the cars on their website are not that bad.
If this is true about the reduction in automobile electronics I wonder what features/luxuries we will lose?

The Tata People's Car may come to North America

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Mar 25 2009 12:35PM

Some time ago we noted the announcement of the Tata Motors Nano, a car designed to sell in the India market for under $2,000. At that time we also commented that if the Nano succeeded in creating a new category of cars in the global market it could change the nature of automotive electronics and considerably dim many marketeers' visions of a the car of a thousand microcontrollers. Much has changed since then.
One thing is that the Nano was officially launched on 23 March, with, as promised, a starting price of Rs100,000: just under $2,000 US at current exchange rates. But along with the launch came some interesting comments from Ratan Tata, the head of the Tata Group, according to an article in the Financial Times. Tata said that there are already plans to sell a version of the Nano in the European market in 2011. More interestingly for our purposes, he also said that the Group is now designing a version of the Nano for export to the United States, perhaps also as early as 2011. Reportedly the Nano as it stands already meets EU emissions and most EU safety requirements, and can be adapted to meet US regulations as well.
So the possibility of the little car becoming a global product is now very close to a reality. Whether it will be successful in the US is another question. But it is not hard to construct a plausible scenario in which the Nano-US could repeat the conquest of this supposedly hostile market that the Volkswagen achieved almost half a century ago.
At that time too, experts tried to explain that US customers only wanted large cars, that small, low-powered vehicles would not be acceptable on US highways, that the US market had no interest in fuel efficiency, that an inexpensive car would never be reliable enough for the long distances people drove in the US, and so on. Turned out, especially after the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, that these statements weren't necessarily predictive.
It's easy to argue that we are in a similar situation today. The US auto industry has blundered itself into an even more disabling situation than it was in at the end of 1973. This time it is essentially insolvent, and without customers. And the economic situation might very well still be favorable to a very-low-priced new car in the US by 2012. Unless countries with major cash reserves really can be talked into buying $2,000 billion in US Treasury securities, it's hard to envision a quick exit from the current global recession. And unless even the more centrist petroleum geologists are wrong, we are in a temporary downward blip in oil prices—not something that could even count as a remission.
Combine lower household income, high risk of unemployment, high debt-service payments, high gasoline prices, and an uncertain future into one scenario, and ask yourself what you would consider when it became necessary to replace your existing commuter car. Certainly relying on mass transit won't be an option, as state and local governments are already throwing mass transit under the bus (as it were) to balance their budgets. Even if Tata has to double the entry price of the Nano for the US market, it would still, at under $4,000, be cheaper than a reliable used car.
So it's plausible that the Nano could take off in the US and Europe. It's highly likely that it will be a success in India, most of Asia, and Africa by 2012 or so. Other automakers will have to respond. And there you have a scenario for reversing the growing electronics complement in automobiles, and refocusing what electronics there are on lower vehicle cost and higher efficiency. Don't be surprised.

http://www.tatamotors.com/

I dont care if they were still only 2k to buy, I am just not ready for a deathtrap car. They are too small. Alot of them on our U.S. roads are too small for me. I prefer some metal or plastic between me and the next car. I watched the crashtest earlier on the news. Not good. Also I think it is on MSN homepage now. Giving up safety for $$, not me.

You don't want one of these ...
 

Speaking of death traps, check out the video of this crash test involving a Smart car. When you see it, you'll think Smart cars are a pretty dumb idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/au...h.html?_r=1&em

I'll spend my 2 g's somewhere else thank you. Nano nano-give me a break!

I check out the their web site and couldn't find the cars, only 1:18 scale cars they are selling.....Wait, really, that was their cars? Sorry, I throught they were selling "REAL" cars....
These cars are not made for American highways where they have to share the road with larger cars like the Yogo....ok, SUVs, Lincolns, 18 wheelers, and Challengers....
NO THANK YOU........

I think it could gain at least a niche market as a city car for urban areas were speeds are low, parking is tight, and budgets are tight. It is pretty much the anti-Challenger. (How close does that make it to being the anti-Christ?...ok, now I'm dabbling in heresy).

You have to give Tata credit for what they did with Jaguar. Their actually competitive against the Germans for the first time since...were they ever competitive against them? I doubt these will be popular besides the type that like golfcart-mobiles who represent a small portion. These cars are long overdue for a hit job by the automotive press and they will do it before long. Trust me, they aren't happy unless they can ruin something for someone else.

I'm happy that someone is finally doing some realistic and accurate crash tests for those mini-cars. Crashing into a wall is quite different than being hit by another car, and mid-sized cars are hardly the biggest thing out there.