INDIA: Carmaker Tata launches 'world's cheapest' car
Updated
It's known as the One Lakh Car, a vehicle costing just 100,000 rupees, or $US2,500, and it was launched in India today. The Nano is the brainchild of Indian motoring giant, Tata, which hopes to convince Indians to ditch their motorbikes in favour of getting behind the wheel of a car.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Anumita Roychowdhury, Centre for Science and Environment, India; Dilip Chenoy, director-general of the Society of Indian Automobile Makers
CHENOY: They have not cut any corners. What Tata's has done is they have used innovative manufacturing processes and different materials, as well worked with the component industry based in India, to lower the cost of components and ensure that the car is built according to international standards, and is available for the people of India at the price one lakh.
HILL: Including international safety standards?
CHENOY: Yes, in fact it meets full frontal crash requirements and side impact requirements and only three parts in the world have better standards,.
HILL: So how come it's so cheap?
CHENOY: Well they're using innovative processes from sourcing to selling. It will be a low cost operation.
HILL: Do you think it will trigger a flood of low cost cars onto the market?
CHENOY: Yes, we've already seen another low cost car prototype being launched on the 8th by Barjaj Auto. You have seen Renault and Ford and others announce low cost cars for India. It actually happened in the world in the 1950s. BT in Japan announced the 100,000 yen car and then they took to the 250,000 yen car, and that's what led to the emergence of the Japanese small car. So this perhaps is the next kind of revolution coming about 50 years after that.
HILL: Tata is marketing the car to Indians who currently ride motorbikes. Given rapid Indian economic growth, do you think this is an emerging market and it's going to be quite large for them?
CHENOY: This car is not targeted as a replacement to a motorbike or anything and this car is targeted as a segment of people who aspire to own a vehicle and need a vehicle as an integral part of their daily life and business. So it is going to create a new segment of buyers in the country. The current production plans are scheduled to be ramping up to about 300,000 by the year 2010-2011. It's not millions of cars being introduced here. If this small car had been available for the buyer, then the buyer would have bought a larger second hand vehicle or some other products and these 300,000 cars will be some of the cars that have been produced here. So it's not as though it's going to suddenly hit out and slug the market.
HILL: But it's still a large number of vehicles making it onto the roads and there has been a lot of criticism about this cheaper car being developed at a time when countries are starting to realise that they need to be more environmentally responsible?
CHENOY: These kind of statements that have been made, are made with a total lack of understanding of either the mobility situation in India, or the features of the car. A small car consumes less steel, less plastic, less rubber, less material than a larger car. It has also been stated by Tata that it as fuel efficient as most motorcycles.
HILL: Mr Chenoy, do you think you will be adding one of these Tata cars to your garage?
CHENOY: I will not be adding a Tata car to my garage. It may actually replace a larger car, because my wife may want to buy one. She feels much better driving a smaller car.
