Tata rolls out world's cheapest car  

AFP reports on the launch of Tata Motors' "Nano" - Tata rolls out world's cheapest car.

India's Tata Motors on Monday launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, hoping to revolutionise travel for millions and buck a slump in auto sales caused by the global economic crisis.

Company boss Ratan Tata said the no-frills car, slated to cost just 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) for the basic model, will get India's middle-class urban population off motorcycles and into safer, affordable four-wheelers.

"I think we are at the gates of offering a new form of transport to the people of India and later, I hope, other markets elsewhere in the world," he said, describing the launch as a "milestone." "The present economic situation makes it somewhat... more attractive to the buying public," he told reporters in Mumbai. ...

Bookings for the tiny car -- just over three metres (10 feet) long -- start on April 9 and end on April 23, Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said. ...

Even affluent Indians are eyeing up the Nano, which has a two-cylinder engine, four-speed manual transmission and a top speed of 105 kilometres (65 miles) per hour. It has no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering, but deluxe versions will be available.

Sify.com reports that objections to a flood of cheap, new cars continue to be voiced (though I'll note as usual that its pretty hypocritical for people in the West to complain about poor people in developing countries buying cars as long as we continue to consume oil at current rates and drive around in things like Hummers) - 'Nano will add to global pollution'.

An Australian motoring expert has slammed the world's least expensive car Nano, which was launched in Mumbai Monday, claiming it would increase global pollution and push up fuel prices.

"When India gets to the level of car ownership that we enjoy in the West, which is about 700 cars for every 1,000 people, it could double the number of cars on earth, presently 900 million, to 1.8 billion," Wheels magazine's features editor John Cadogan told ABC Radio. "That will have profound impact on carbon dioxide production, greenhouse (gases), the environment and health generally," Cadogan added. ...

But Cadogan was emphatic that the huge response would not translate into people stepping off giant gas-guzzlers and squeezing into the tiny 624-cc jellybean car with a 35-bhp engine. "It would be brilliant if that happened but what's going to happen in India is that the Tata Nano is going to put new car ownership on the shopping list for a bunch of people who just haven't been able to afford a car in the past," Cadogan said.

"So we're not going to be replacing gas-guzzling 4x4s with fuel-efficient cars, we already do that in the West. What's going to happen is a lot more cars are going to get on the road and that's going to happen in India and China and it will be a profound change."

The Australian also believed Nano would impact fuel prices. "Oil is running out and in fact we're at about peak oil production now. China and India are running to the party and the keg is half empty," he said.