Posted on 01/13/2008 2:53:18 PM PST by voletti
The automotive world is abuzz about what might be the next Model T Ford or Volkswagen Beetle—an entry-level sedan to be built in India by Tata Motors Ltd. for about $2,500.
That would be about half the cost of the lowest-priced car now available in India—the bare-bones Maruti 800, which is essentially unchanged from its introduction in 1983. If Tata pulls this off, it would be one of the cheapest cars ever built, and it could have a huge impact not only on India’s growing car market but also all over the semideveloped world.
Tata hopes to begin selling the car by this fall, almost exactly 100 years after Henry Ford introduced the vehicle that defined “people’s car”—the world-changing Model T. And there are interesting parallels and lessons in what was happening in the automotive world one century ago and what might be happening in India right now.
.... Robert Martin never forgot that day, when a farmer, rather than suffer with his toothache until Saturday, had hopped in his trusty Model T and made the approximately 40-minute trip over dirt roads into town to seek relief from his pain, do some impromptu shopping, and get back to the farm in time to work the rest of the day. He sensed that a great change, a profound change in life and lifestyle, was taking place. And the catalyst was the mud-spattered “motorcar” parked out in front of his store.
Tata Motors, in daring to build the One Lakh, understands profoundly what Robert Martin sensed. It knows, too, that even a little $2,500 four-door can be a dream machine, a freedom machine.
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
We do live in interestig times.
An updated VW with a smaller motor.
Must be amazing to have so many threads for a product that won’t be sold in the USA.
Good observation.
Its a flat, globalized world and all those bromides. Butterflies fluttering far away may have effects on US shores.
All in all, I think its a change for the better. Can-do spirit and all that.
That's some cheap Tatas.
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