Just like Ford's Model-T, Tata motor's Nano will make owning an automobile possible for several hundred million families. Use this link to Wired Magazine to learn more about India's 50-MPG Tata Nano.
Demand for the Tata Nano is so high the company is using a lottery system to select the first 100,000 lucky owners.
At the moment, the Nano will be offered only overseas, but the company insists a version could be headed to North America in three years. Wired
If hundreds of millions of poor families can now afford to drive a car, won't that demand raise the price of gas? Millions of new automobile users will surely emit additional carbon dioxide into the world's atmosphere.
The Nano supposedly emits 30 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, well below the 160 g/km average of Europe's cars and far less than the 130 g/km standard the European Union will adopt in 2012. Wired (click link to learn more)
I think the Tata Nano will be an interesting development and lots that I have to say about it doesn't particularly have to do with science. However, the issues that surround the Tata Nano are a good example of how breakthroughs in the field of transportation and energy don't exist in a vacuum.
First off, there isn't so much love to the car maker Tata in some parts of India. The original Nano manufacturing plant had to be shut down after locals protested that the government and company had illegally seized their land. Lots of the land that was seized as part of an imminent domain claim, was owned by families for several hundred years.
Secondly, Tata might not be able to survive long enough to make the Nano that popular. I'm no financial expert but, I think a B-- is a bad credit rating. That's what Standards and Poors downgraded Tata's credit to yesterday. The cash strapped company might have a new successful car on their hands, but even rampant sales of the cheap car might not add up to enough to keep the company afloat.
Ohh...and then yeah, there are the environmental concerns.
Oh! and Tata just bought Jaguar and Land Rover?! I mean I love me an 70s-80s vintage Jag and have bucolic fantasies of trucking around my estate in my Land Rover, but those don't strike me as financially viable companies as of late.
man i dont know about anyone else but personally i want an environmettal car that looks cool
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