Tata of India has begun finalising the details of their latest car, the Nano. What is so different about this car as opposed to any other is that it will cost a mere £1,250 ($2500) to buy.
Now this brings obvious opportunity to many developing countries and many opportunities to market in more affluent countries to second, third, fourth car owning families and to poorer families.
It also opens up many possibilites for lower cost rentals including Urban rental schemes like Zipcar or CityCarClub.
However, if a car like this is lower cost to own what issues does that bring with it?
More disposable? Do we buy, use and throw away like a pizza box? Would there in effect be more plastics, metals and chemicals wasted due to this disposability?
More dangerous? If we care less about the vehicle we drive, will we become careless in our driving skills, after all a few bumps later and we can just buy a new car.
Enviromental damage due to easier access to vehicles? The car is cheaper, easier to own by more people. Does this mean more cars on our roads, more gridlock, more people in more countries driving, this is after all an Indian product, think of the numbers in India and China alone. What enviromental damage is this going to cause in terms of production and fuel.
Will rapid expansion in car ownership be tempered by rising fuel costs due to greater demand?
So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Post your comments and let me know be interesting to see your views.
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