Worlds cheapest new car.

[Yellow_Festiva]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=344578

Don't look to bad actually. I was wondering when China or India would make one of these, when you can buy a DVD player for $38 or a Microwave / 3 in 1 home printer for $59 why not a car for $2800?

India's Tata unveils world's cheapest car
Friday Jan 11 06:19 AEDT
India's Tata Group unveiled the world's cheapest car costing $2800 amid predictions the no-frills vehicle could revolutionise how millions in India and elsewhere travel.

The launch of the Tata Nano was a landmark in the history of transportation, claimed 70-year-old tycoon Ratan Tata, the head of the giant conglomerate, while rejecting fears the spartan car would add to congestion and pollution.

The four-door, five-seat sporty-looking car, which defied pre-launch predictions that it would be little more than a "motorised bullock cart on wheels", is due to hit the roads later this year at just 100,000 rupees ($2800), excluding tax, after the Tata Group cut costs to the bone.

The theme from Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey played as Tata unveiled the snub-nosed Nano — so called to appear both high-tech and small to cheers and applause at the annual Delhi car show.

The Tata chief, who drove a white Nano to the podium, said he had wanted to make "a safe, affordable and all-weather transport — a people's car, designed to meet all safety standards and emissions laws and accessible to all."

The Nano has a two-cylinder 623 cc, rear-mounted engine with a top speed of 105 kilometres per hour.

The basic model has a four-speed manual transmission, no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering, although two deluxe versions will be available.

The Nano initially targets increasingly affluent Indians trading up from a motorcycle to a car amid an economic boom, but there are plans to enter other emerging markets such as Latin America.

Tata, likened by India's media to US automobile pioneer Henry Ford, compared the importance of the vehicle, nicknamed the "People's Car", to the first powered flight by the Wright brothers or the first lunar landing.

"I observed families riding on two-wheelers, the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby," Tata told reporters at the crowded launch.

"It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family," he said.

Soaring commodity prices had pushed up costs during the car's four-year development, but Tata said he had wanted to keep his pledge of a 100,000-rupee price tag, although tax will make the onroad price at least 120,000 rupees.

The businessman argued the new car — less than half the price of its nearest budget car rival on Indian roads, would be better and safer than most motorcycles.

"The car we have designed will meet all the current safety requirements... and will have a lower pollution level than even a two-wheeler being manufactured in India today," he said.

Courier driver Daniel Abraham said the Nano appealed to him as a transport option.

"If I can get a loan from my boss, I might buy the car so my family and I could travel. I can't take my mother on my motorcycle any more — she's too old," he said.

But environmentalists fear the Nano will jam up India's already clogged roads even further and add to choking pollution if it proves a winner.

"In my view this represents a bankruptcy of policy as far as transport options are concerned," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's climate panel which won the Nobel Prize last year.

"If our roads are going to be flooded with these cars by a few million each year, what is that going to do? Every car that goes on the road is going to use road space. We're only adding to congestion" and increasing pollution, he said.

Tata said he believed "India desperately needs a mass transit system" but asked "should (ordinary Indians) be denied the right to individual forms of transport?"

Auto analysts say the Nano could have a major impact on the way global car firms think about costs.

It may "revolutionise car costs downward," said Indian auto analyst Murad Ali Baig, adding that the Nano was bound to be followed by other low-cost cars.

The car has sparked a race among global automakers to come up with vehicles at rock-bottom prices to appeal to the new lucrative segment of consumers in India and other emerging markets.

"It is unlikely to keep this market for itself for too long," said Ian Fletcher, auto analyst at London-based Global Insight.

Small cars comprise two-thirds of annual passenger vehicle sales in India.

The budget car's nearest rival — the Maruti 800 from Japanese-owned Maruti Suzuki sells for $5300 dollars.

Tata, which has been on an aggressive overseas expansion drive, is also expected to win its reported two-billion-dollar bid for the British Land Rover and Jaguar brands.

That would put it in the unusual position of making two prestige marques and the world's lowest-cost car.