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by Nicholas Aaron Khoo, Singapore

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The world's cheapest car!

Jan 12, 2008 13:20

Just got back from Mumbai, India,and news is abuzz with the proud unveiling of the Tata 1 lakh rupee car--the world's cheapest car. The "people's car".

Every news channel is raving about it and hardly do you hear detractors except for the environmentalists.

Good news is, the Tata Nano meets Euro IV emission standards compared to most cars in India now that do not even meet Euro II emission standards. I think environmentalists' concerns are mainly not traced to the make of the car itself, but the potential congestion and pollution that will come about from every man on the street having his own four wheels.

1 lakh rupee translates to around US$2,500 and can be compared to prices of laptop computers! Now, that's one gizmo you can now dream of owning! Not in Singapore, of course, after the Government loads a ton of taxes on it! But maybe in future, we can write about car ownership along the same lines as gadget ownership!

In India, Tata sales are already complaining about over orders as their phones buzz non-stop with orders of not one to two cars each time, but 50 cars and above! Hmm, makes one wonder if India needed such a cheap car in the first place. Mr Tata, the man himself, shared that he embarked on this mission in 2003 when he saw a whole family commuting on a bike under rain. He promised to make car ownership affordable for everyone who needs it.

Well, from the looks of the orders averaging 50 units and more, for those who do not need it as well!

If I buy a Tata Nano, I can imagine all my modifications and addon gadgets like GPS navigation, mobile LCD TV, etc., would easily cost more than the car itself. LOL! (My last car stereo installation already cost more than 1 Lakh rupee.)

And now you can tell people your expensive gizmo costs more than some cars! Hahaha!

Although there's not much info released on the car and this is not a car review site, it looks like driving on India roads will be more fun than ever:

Some random photos I took while waiting in the boring traffic jams.

Maybe they should all switch to horse carriages instead to hark the environmentalists' call:

Or use pigeons for all the communications instead of driving over to meet up:

UPDATE NOV 2008 : I was just reflecting on the Mumbai terror attacks and realised that the 2 pictures here above you see are directly in the area where the terror siege is happening right now. You see the horse cart in front of the Taj hotel and these pigeons are right in front of the hotel. What a sharp but sad contrasts, of the peace and tranquility in these pictures and the terror we are witnessing on TV right now. Please pray for the poor victims.

But really, I just can't wait to see when the Tata Nano becomes a taxi, that'll be quite a sight judging from the current taxi designs:

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hkgeoff

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hkgeoff says...
This is PERFECT for Hong Kong! It fits into small parking spaces and is cheap to park since it is so tiny. But I understand it is not so eco friendly, yes? Mercedes has its SMART car but that is about 6-8 times more expensive!!

Jan 18, 2008 07:38

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Geekonomics

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Geekonomics says...
in fact I heard it scores OK on the eco bit :p

Jan 21, 2008 02:41

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About Nicholas Aaron Khoo

Nicknamed "Gadget Boy" by friends at age 18 because he used to scribble Grafitti on a PalmPilot faster than most would type, Nicholas Aaron Khoo is web developer turned technopreneur and Singapore tech blogger who also pretends to do strategic advisory for tech startups and 'un'Fortune 500s (when he's not pretending to be the gadget-loaded Batman). A digital nomad, his tech interests range from gadgets, games, tech trends, social media, security, and just about anything that runs on 1s and 0s. See his industry affiliations here.
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