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Ultra-cheap car: a false dawn?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Praful Bidwai
"Rs1 lakh car drives 1 billion dreams," "Tata reinvents the wheel," screamed the headlines as the media rapturously welcomed the unveiling of Tata Motors' Nano car in Delhi amidst rousing music signifying the coming of an epochal event. The car has been described as "revolutionary," a "historic breakthrough," something that has made "every Indian several inches taller" and will trigger innovation in manufacturing technology the world over!
The Nano is expected to do to India what Ford's Model T did a century ago to the United States by "democratising" automobile ownership. It's being depicted as an achievement not just of one business group or of the automobile industry, but as the triumph of the Indian nation itself, along with its consumer citizens.
On a critical view, however, the Nano is marked by safety features and emission standards. Thanks to its low price, it will greatly expand India's market for cars (currently, 1.5 million). Their proliferation will cause unbearable traffic congestion, enormous pollution and health damage, and set back the all-important fight against global warming. The euphoric welcome fails to understand that in a poor and frugal society like India's, cars cannot democratise. They polarise, not unite, society.
Even the most attractive, iconic, feature of the car--the Rs100,000 price--is probably an illusion. The price tag contains subsidies, in the first place. The Tata Motors plant coming in West Bengal, which will produce the Nano, is subsidised to the extent of Rs8.5 billion by the Left Front government, according to economist and former finance minister Ashok Mitra. This works out to one-fourth of the project's capital cost.
The Indian government has spent about Rs1.5 billion to buy 997 acres of land, but given it to the Tatas almost free. It's also advancing them a Rs20-billion loan at 1 percent interest and granting an exemption from the value-added tax for 10 years, amounting to Rs5 billion.
To further "sweeten" the deal, the state government has gifted to the Tatas 50 acres of prime land just outside Kolkata and another 200 acres in the Bhangar-Rajarhat Area Development Authority to build IT and residential townships.
The total subsidy may thus turn out to be considerably higher. Besides, that superlatively attractive price is only applicable to the bare-bones model as an introductory offer. Nevertheless, the Nano will probably remain the world's cheapest car for some time because its cost has been ruthlessly pared down. The upside of this is unconventional thinking focused on minimalism, which may trigger cost-cutting within the automobile industry.
The downside is the cutting of corners to produce a car with low longevity and high maintenance, which fails the current Western emission and safety standards, and will soon ail Indian norms too. This approach differs from dispensing with luxuries or add-ons, as in having a trunk with space for only a briefcase. For instance, the Nano's designers used a hollow shaft instead of a solid beam to connect the steering-wheel to the axle, and plastics and adhesives instead of many bolts. The car's low-performance wheel bearings will wear out rapidly beyond 70 kph.
It has only one windshield-wiper instead of two. It uses continuous variable transmission, with low acceleration. To save a mere ten dollars, devices called actuators, which adjust the angle of the car's lights to its load, were eliminated. This is likely to affect the car's safety, sturdiness and durability/longevity.
The Nano fails current western emission standards like Euro-IV, and will soon fail Indian standards too. Tata's claim that the Nano meets India's national emission standards hasn't been verified by an independent competent agency. Euro-IV norms will enter force in India's major cities in April 2010 and are much stricter than Bharat-II or III, India's own emission standards.
Similarly, long-overdue safety standards are on their way. These include full-body crash tests--which determine how cars crumple in collisions--airbags and ABS. Implementing them will raise the Nano's costs by 40 to 50 percent.
According to pollution experts, ultra-cheap bare-bones cars like the Nano lack the complex technology needed to maintain initial level of emissions, and could soon produce four to five times more.
The Nano will set a trend under which industry will rush to produce ultra-cheap cars by exploiting India's poor emission standards. Bajaj Auto, Volkswagen, Nissan and GM are already in this race. The addition of stripped-down cars will further slow down urban traffic--whose speed has almost halved recently. This will greatly increase pollution, which has reached critical levels in three-fifths of India's cities and is creating havoc.
Yet, India is following a policy under which a car can legally occupy the same space as a slum-dwelling family considered fit for eviction. This must radically change, so that public transport is given top priority and people can be moved in safe, efficient and environmentally sound ways and have equitable and affordable access to public transport.
Automobilisation of transport and society spells high social costs, resource waste, air pollution, global warming, and iniquitous use of road space. In most Indian cities, cars and two-wheelers hog 60 to 80 percent of space, but deliver 15 to 20 percent of passenger trips. By contrast, buses occupy under 20 percent of road space, and account for up to 60 percent of trips. Cars demand high levels of maintenance, repairs and parking space. They usually occupy prime space--even when unused. Studies show that if car owners were made to pay the economic rent for parking, many would stop using them. At Mumbai's Nariman Point, for instance, the true annual market price of parking space per car would exceed its nominal cost by at least tenfold! Cars are an extremely inefficient form of transportation. They slow down public transport, causing enormous waste of social time and congestion. Above all, they pollute and the particulates they emit contain some 40 known carcinogens.
If present trends are allowed to continue, India's car market will be annually growing at 14.5 percent by 2013. By 2020, more than 150 million Indians and 140 million Chinese will have cars. If this happens, it will become near-impossible to achieve major reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. China and India account for 70 percent of the recent global increase in energy demand. The Nano should provoke us all to rethink transportation policies in keeping with the requirements of equity and reversing climate change.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and human rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Praful Bidwai
"Rs1 lakh car drives 1 billion dreams," "Tata reinvents the wheel," screamed the headlines as the media rapturously welcomed the unveiling of Tata Motors' Nano car in Delhi amidst rousing music signifying the coming of an epochal event. The car has been described as "revolutionary," a "historic breakthrough," something that has made "every Indian several inches taller" and will trigger innovation in manufacturing technology the world over!
The Nano is expected to do to India what Ford's Model T did a century ago to the United States by "democratising" automobile ownership. It's being depicted as an achievement not just of one business group or of the automobile industry, but as the triumph of the Indian nation itself, along with its consumer citizens.
On a critical view, however, the Nano is marked by safety features and emission standards. Thanks to its low price, it will greatly expand India's market for cars (currently, 1.5 million). Their proliferation will cause unbearable traffic congestion, enormous pollution and health damage, and set back the all-important fight against global warming. The euphoric welcome fails to understand that in a poor and frugal society like India's, cars cannot democratise. They polarise, not unite, society.
Even the most attractive, iconic, feature of the car--the Rs100,000 price--is probably an illusion. The price tag contains subsidies, in the first place. The Tata Motors plant coming in West Bengal, which will produce the Nano, is subsidised to the extent of Rs8.5 billion by the Left Front government, according to economist and former finance minister Ashok Mitra. This works out to one-fourth of the project's capital cost.
The Indian government has spent about Rs1.5 billion to buy 997 acres of land, but given it to the Tatas almost free. It's also advancing them a Rs20-billion loan at 1 percent interest and granting an exemption from the value-added tax for 10 years, amounting to Rs5 billion.
To further "sweeten" the deal, the state government has gifted to the Tatas 50 acres of prime land just outside Kolkata and another 200 acres in the Bhangar-Rajarhat Area Development Authority to build IT and residential townships.
The total subsidy may thus turn out to be considerably higher. Besides, that superlatively attractive price is only applicable to the bare-bones model as an introductory offer. Nevertheless, the Nano will probably remain the world's cheapest car for some time because its cost has been ruthlessly pared down. The upside of this is unconventional thinking focused on minimalism, which may trigger cost-cutting within the automobile industry.
The downside is the cutting of corners to produce a car with low longevity and high maintenance, which fails the current Western emission and safety standards, and will soon ail Indian norms too. This approach differs from dispensing with luxuries or add-ons, as in having a trunk with space for only a briefcase. For instance, the Nano's designers used a hollow shaft instead of a solid beam to connect the steering-wheel to the axle, and plastics and adhesives instead of many bolts. The car's low-performance wheel bearings will wear out rapidly beyond 70 kph.
It has only one windshield-wiper instead of two. It uses continuous variable transmission, with low acceleration. To save a mere ten dollars, devices called actuators, which adjust the angle of the car's lights to its load, were eliminated. This is likely to affect the car's safety, sturdiness and durability/longevity.
The Nano fails current western emission standards like Euro-IV, and will soon fail Indian standards too. Tata's claim that the Nano meets India's national emission standards hasn't been verified by an independent competent agency. Euro-IV norms will enter force in India's major cities in April 2010 and are much stricter than Bharat-II or III, India's own emission standards.
Similarly, long-overdue safety standards are on their way. These include full-body crash tests--which determine how cars crumple in collisions--airbags and ABS. Implementing them will raise the Nano's costs by 40 to 50 percent.
According to pollution experts, ultra-cheap bare-bones cars like the Nano lack the complex technology needed to maintain initial level of emissions, and could soon produce four to five times more.
The Nano will set a trend under which industry will rush to produce ultra-cheap cars by exploiting India's poor emission standards. Bajaj Auto, Volkswagen, Nissan and GM are already in this race. The addition of stripped-down cars will further slow down urban traffic--whose speed has almost halved recently. This will greatly increase pollution, which has reached critical levels in three-fifths of India's cities and is creating havoc.
Yet, India is following a policy under which a car can legally occupy the same space as a slum-dwelling family considered fit for eviction. This must radically change, so that public transport is given top priority and people can be moved in safe, efficient and environmentally sound ways and have equitable and affordable access to public transport.
Automobilisation of transport and society spells high social costs, resource waste, air pollution, global warming, and iniquitous use of road space. In most Indian cities, cars and two-wheelers hog 60 to 80 percent of space, but deliver 15 to 20 percent of passenger trips. By contrast, buses occupy under 20 percent of road space, and account for up to 60 percent of trips. Cars demand high levels of maintenance, repairs and parking space. They usually occupy prime space--even when unused. Studies show that if car owners were made to pay the economic rent for parking, many would stop using them. At Mumbai's Nariman Point, for instance, the true annual market price of parking space per car would exceed its nominal cost by at least tenfold! Cars are an extremely inefficient form of transportation. They slow down public transport, causing enormous waste of social time and congestion. Above all, they pollute and the particulates they emit contain some 40 known carcinogens.
If present trends are allowed to continue, India's car market will be annually growing at 14.5 percent by 2013. By 2020, more than 150 million Indians and 140 million Chinese will have cars. If this happens, it will become near-impossible to achieve major reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. China and India account for 70 percent of the recent global increase in energy demand. The Nano should provoke us all to rethink transportation policies in keeping with the requirements of equity and reversing climate change.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and human rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in
This vehicle is plastic and metal glued together how in the hell is that safe if u mean safe from rain then yes if u mean safe in case of an accident hate to tell ya all driver knees are the front bumpers and his azz is the trunk.
