Tata kills the world’s cheapest car that nobody wanted.
Other than Teslas, TreeHugger has devoted more space to the Tata Nano than any other car. When it launched in 2008 we thought it was the sign of the apocalypse; I joked about this photo “No, they are not environmentalists burning the new Tata Nano in effigy, they are protesting the eviction of farmers to build the factory.” But it might as well have been environmentalists, worried about a car so cheap that the roads would be filled with them, a sort of Indian Model T or Volkswagen Beetle. That was Ratan Tata’s dream:
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. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family. Tata Motors' engineers and designers gave their all for about four years to realise this goal. Today, we indeed have a People's Car, which is affordable and yet built to meet safety requirements and emission norms, to be fuel efficient and low on emissions.
© FP PHOTO/ Sam PANTHAKY/ The first Nano
I worried about its implications in 2008.
Low emissions are great. But multiply them by millions and one has a problem. It is the eternal problem, Indians are as entitled to drive as we are in the developed world and who are we to criticize when we have our cars. Except our cars plus their cars will kill us all and if we won't give them up we have no right to complain. Henry Ford unleashed a revolution that changed our world and gave us mobility, but at what price. Now we get to watch the rerun.
Daniel Kessler worried:
Another troubling aspect for a world confronting global climate change is the Nano's carbon footprint. What will it mean for global emissions and a heating planet if over a billion Indians now have access to incredibly cheap, personal transportation? The Nano does get 50 miles per gallon, but experts warn that the sheer volume of new cars will take away any of its efficiency gains.
© STR/AFP/Getty Images; "The car draped with a ceremonial garland of marigolds, burst into flames as it was being driven home from a city showroom."
