Climate change evangelists are in uproar over the launch of Tata's latest locally-relevant innovation, the 'People's car'. With sales of cars going up, emissions worries are compounded by incomplete information and a lack of thinking about the equity [economic and social] that India's population deserves. First, the People's Car will replace inefficient emitting motos -- basically lawnmower engines working overtime. Second, these will be efficient petrol users and emitters -- assuming higher passenger loads. Third, safer [hopefully]. Fourth, benchmarking efficiency, price and quality in the Indian automotive sector for all other manufacturers, designers and planners to follow. Fifth, locally built enhancing multipliers. And finally, from an "ecological space" viewpoint, Indian consumers have a lot of carbon spare to burn in economically enriching ways. The People's Car is not perfect, but it is way better than consuming imported cars.
Tata says: "Indian car sales are predicted to more than quadruple to $145bn by 2016. Company chairman Ratan Tata said the launch of the Nano was a landmark in the history of transportation. Further, the car was "a safe, affordable and all weather transport - a people's car, designed to meet all safety standards and emissions laws and accessible to all".
Environmental critics have said that the car will lead to mounting air and pollution problems on India's already clogged roads. The car had passed emission standards and would average about 50 miles to the gallon, or five litres per hundred kilometres.
Environmental critics have said that the car will lead to mounting air and pollution problems on India's already clogged roads. The car had passed emission standards and would average about 50 miles to the gallon, or five litres per hundred kilometres.
6 comments:
The Independent worries that this car spells environmental catastrophe! Given the limits on emissions necessary to stop Climate Change, the UK's obsession with driving will be the first hit - not the Indians. Nice article, though ... http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3328387.ece
The Independent worries that this car spells environmental catastrophe! Given the limits on emissions necessary to stop Climate Change, the UK's obsession with driving will be the first hit - not the Indians. Nice article, though ... http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article3328387.ece
In the same paper today, Hamish McRae [who?] bigs-up the One Lakh car - is he the Tall Economist? the lingo is quite similar: "Don't be arrogant - this is an idea whose time has come"
India's "one-lakh car" is an idea whose time has come. It is great step forward for the burgeoning Indian middle class, bringing safe, affordable personal transport to families. It is also a triumph for Indian engineering, demonstrating that it is able to achieve something that the established manufacturers of the developed world have conspicuously failed do.
And while more cars on the planet will mean more fuel consumed, this small, efficient vehicle represents a more sustainable environmental path than that chosen by the other great, growing economic power, China.
The new car fills the gap between a standard mini-car and the motor-scooter or motorbike, a gap only partly filled by a tuk-tuk, those little three-wheelers that serve as taxis not just in India but in much of south-east Asia.
India's economic take-off – growth was close to 9 per cent last year – is lifting millions of people of out poverty into a new middle class but it is a middle class that is by Western standards still poor. For these people, the only way of having mobility is either the motor-scooter option, terrifying and dangerous, or scratching together enough money to buy a patched-up second-hand car. Think the same sort of transition as in 1930s Britain, when the Austin 7 started to supplant the motorcycle and sidecar, or in the impoverished post-war years when the Fiat 500 and 2CV Citroen brought motoring to the masses on the Continent. The "one-lakh car", at 100,000 rupees or about £1,300, is aimed at a similar market to that of the Austin 7 but it is much better engineered.
European and Japanese manufacturers build small cars but they do not try to build really cheap ones because they cannot make money out of them. Our smallest cars, such as the Smart car, are cute little jewels designed to make owners feel good rather than meeting basic motoring needs. China has followed the West, producing relatively large cars, often rip-off copies of Western designs, so it has a less fuel-efficient car fleet than France and probably the UK.
That leads to the environmental issue. It is easy for people in the comfortable West to voice concern at the prospect of a billion Indian people owning cars, for we are aware of the social and other costs of mass motoring. But that is also arrogant and economically illiterate.
It is arrogant to hold that hard-working Indians should not be bright enough to chose how they should spend their salaries. It is illiterate for a host of reasons. One is that it won't be a billion people because car use in India will remain far below developed-country levels for generations. Another is that if India is to retain its middle class, essential for transforming the lives of the whole society, it has to be able to offer it a middle-class lifestyle.
Another is that a more modern car fleet will be, safer, more efficient and less polluting. Still another is that when, in a decade or so, India becomes a larger economy than the UK, the energy consumption of its vehicle fleet will still in all probability be lower than ours. That is not true of China.
UNclear why this is a climat changing issue -- surely it is a freedom to drive issue. Here from Reuters Automotive Industry Ramps up Production of Fuel Efficient Cars and Races to
Find Alternative Fuel Sources, KPMG Survey Finds
DETROIT, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Automotive industry executives have
identified finding alternative fuel sources as the number one trend facing the
industry and are focused on producing low cost cars and hybrids to meet
consumer demand, according to an annual global survey by KPMG LLP, the U.S.
audit, tax and advisory firm.
In the KPMG survey, based on interviews with 113 senior executives at
vehicle manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, auto execs said quality (86
percent) and fuel efficiency (84 percent) are the two key factors for
consumers in making a purchase in the next five years. Other top consumer
criteria are safety (70 percent) and affordability (69 percent). The execs
also feel that car buyers will want vehicles using alternative fuel sources,
which has jumped considerably in importance from KPMG's survey a year ago (65
percent versus 53 percent).
"The industry knows where it is and knows where it needs to be," said
Daron Gifford, National Automotive Leader for KPMG LLP. "It needs to produce
quality vehicles that are fuel efficient, especially in this economic cycle,
and it needs to invest heavily in developing alternative sources of power. We
found the execs in our survey more optimistic than past years, and that's
largely because the landscape before them is clearer on the direction they
need to go."
To meet demand, auto execs in the KPMG survey said that in the next five
years, in terms of global market share and units sold, 81 percent expect major
increases in low cost/introduction cars and an equal percentage expect
increases in hybrids. This was followed by cars, at 67 percent, and
crossovers at 58 percent. Categories of vehicles expected to fall are SUVs
and large pick-ups, with 47 percent projecting a decrease in SUVs and 50
percent projecting a decrease in large pickups.
Asked to rate the importance of automotive product innovations over the
next five years, 79 percent cited hybrid systems and 78 percent fuel cell
technology, with safety innovations trailing at 67 percent.
The auto industry projected alternative fuel/hybrid vehicles sales to be
in the 500,000 to 600,000 range by the end of 2007. Thirty-two percent of
execs in the KPMG survey felt that we will see an equal number sold in 2008,
while 25 percent saw a modest increase to 600,000 to 700,000 vehicles.
Sixteen percent expect sales in the 700,000 to 800,000 range, with 27 percent
expecting sales to top 800,000. The execs surveyed last year under projected
sales of alternative/hybrid vehicles for 2007; only 17 percent expected sales
to top 500,000.
"The auto execs expect heavy investment in new models/products and new
technologies in the next two years as well as building capacity in Asia," said
KPMG's Gifford. "Not investing puts manufacturers at risk in terms of market
and product differentiation, resulting in market share decline."
Investment in China has been so strong that the number of cars sold in
China could equal that of the United States in the next five years, the execs
said. In addition, they feel that China will sell a significant number of
cars in the U.S. in 6-10 years. What also may result, however, are problems
with overcapacity, with 45 percent of the execs saying that overcapacity in
China will become an issue in the next five years.
In the KPMG survey, the executives interviewed represented vehicle
manufacturers and suppliers in Canada, United States, England, France,
Germany, Sweden, India, China, South Korea, Japan and Australia. KPMG has
released an annual survey of automotive executives expressing their views on
the state of the industry since 1999.
KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.us.kpmg.com), is the U.S.
member firm of KPMG International. KPMG International's member firms have
123,000 professionals, including more than 7,100 partners, in 145 countries.
As a non car English citizen concerned with climate change, I think if everyone on the planet has a car we are deep trouble...plenty of Indians agree with me too http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-burning-cars-later.html
Derek, The economic argument is lost on me here: it is clear the killer fact is that in the UK and US we have too many cars. Why are the Indians with "ecological space" to burn a focus for big-burning Brits? Why should global environment limits limit opportunities for the poor not the rich?
Given lower income and access to capital and cheap maintenance and parts in most developing countries, the actual cost of car ownership is far far higher than in the UK. We have the cheap cars, not the Indians?!
Is the solution encapsulated by; how can we divert clean technologies [including clean automobiles] to fast developing countries [BRIC] while stopping car ownership in developed countries?
Any attempt to curtail opportunities for the poor to lift themselves out of poverty should be scorned by eco-socialists - balancing social and environmental, not arbitrarily trumping!
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