World ‘can’t afford’ its cheapest car

by Simon Handby in Your car on 11.01.08

There’s been a large buzz in the international press about the Tata Nano, fêted as the world’s cheapest car. While its £1,300 price tag means it could bring affordable motoring to millions of people in the developing world, environmentalists fear that the climate can’t afford millions more cars.

According to an article in today’s Independent, concerns about the Indian “people’s car” range from the rise in emissions that a huge increase in car ownership would create, to whether the roads in India and the Nano’s other target markets can cope with the extra traffic.

Quoted in the newspaper, Tony Bosworth from Friends of the Earth UK said: “The Tata Nano makes motoring cheaper and growing car sales in India will lead to big rises in carbon dioxide emissions. This is another blow to efforts to tackle global climate change.”

But he added that “per-person emissions will still be much higher in the West”, and that the priority must be for the developed world to lead the way in a low-carbon economy.

Ratan N Tata, CEO of the corporation behind the Nano, said that the inspiration to develop it came after he saw a family of four travelling on one moped, in the rain. “I wanted to provide Indian families with an all-weather means of safe transport,” he said.

“It’s far better than what I expected,” reporter Jason Overdorf told Indian newspaper The Economic Times. “It’s a world-class innovation that has come from India. People residing in large cities of Europe and also in the developing countries would buy this car as it’s affordable.”

The Independent says that Indians own just seven cars per 1,000 people, compared to 373 in the UK, but that sales are rising. Last year, one million new vehicles were added to the country’s fleet of 10 million.

“People are buying cars, I cannot stop them,” lamented Greenpeace India spokesperson Soumya Brata Rahut. “The revolution in small cars means there will be more and more.”

IMAGE courtesy of Tata