A cheap car for people in India…but what about our gas prices?
Posted on January 14, 2008
Filed Under News
Tata Motors of India presented last week what will soon be the world’s cheapest car. Nano, as the car was named, will cost roughly $2500 and will bring automotive transportation to the average Indian population (for this, it has been nicknamed “the people’s car”). Over 10 feet long, nearly 5 feet wide and with 33 horsepower, the four-door Nano prototype is capable of 65 miles an hour and up to 54 miles per gallon. Incredible! Tata says it will offer the Nano in other emerging markets in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa within four years. But wait, what will happen to the rest of us?
I could not believe when I heard some people complaining that the inclusion of such a cheap car will cause everything from congestion and pollution to higher gas prices and world chaos. Why do some people always need to whine about something? How can a twenty five hundred dollar car be bad news, especially to the 1.100 million Indian population, where a high percentage of its people are supposedly earning less that $2 a day. Do we need to keep cars at a certain price range so some people can order Bic Mac’s comfortably over the drive-thru while some kid in India has to walk for miles just to get to school?
I’m sure the “every day whiner” would also complain if a good piece of steak would cost 80% less of what it costs today. I’m sure they would argue that more people would die of heart disease each year, and that the percentage of choking men during summer grills would increase significantly. Not to mention that vegans would become carnivores again, considering that a New York strip steak would be cheaper than an organic lettuce, and that having an overpopulation of cattle would affect the world’s ecosystem resulting in a reduction of our yearly vegetable production. Tums anybody?
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