Thursday, January 10, 2008

And you think oil prices are a problem NOW ...



NEW DELHI —

India's Tata Motors on Thursday unveiled the world's cheapest car, bringing new mobility within the reach of tens of millions of people and nightmares to environmentalists, traffic engineers and safety advocates.

Company Chairman Ratan Tata, introducing the Nano ... price tag $2,500 ... during India's main auto show, drove onto a stage in a white version of the tiny four-door subcompact, his head nearly scraping the roof.

With a snub nose and a sloping roof, it can fit five people ... if they squeeze. And the basic version is spare: there's no radio, no passenger-side mirror and only one windshield wiper. If you want air conditioning to cope with India's brutal summers, you need to get the deluxe version.

But it's cheap. The Nano's closest competitor here is the Maruti 800, a four-door that sells for nearly twice as much.

More after the click ...

My comment: What happens to the price of oil when India and China produce 3,000,000,000 new drives, all wanting to toodle down the block to the grocery store?

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