Tata's $2500 car and Fords "Edge Concept" plug-in with diesel or Hydrogen fuel cell.

[papau]

http://www.forbesautos.com/news/autoshows/2007/new-york/ford-hyseries.html
First Drive: Ford Edge HySeries
Ford says the concept has a top speed of around 85 mph and that the fuel cell could be swapped with another power source, such as a small diesel engine.
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Tata Motors One Lakh car (100,000 Indian Rupee = 2,382.70 US Dollar, but with taxes accounting for almost half a car's ex-factory cost, Tata will have to produce a car within Rs 70,000 for it to be priced at Rs 1 lakh in the market) will be a rear engine, 4-5 seat, four-door car with about a 33 horsepower engine, gross vehicle weight may be just above 600kg — the internationally prescribed lower limit, and a single wipernlade instead of two, giving the car a cleaner look as it cuts the cost.

If it meets safety and emission standards and has the looks which you could fall in love with, no autorickshaw sounds, and sufficient power, we may have a cult car.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/102865/the-next-peoples-car

The Next People Car
by Robyn Meredith
Thursday, April 19, 2007
provided by

An Indian car may soon earn a parking place in history alongside Ford's Model T, Volkswagen's Beetle and the British Motor Corp.'s Mini, all of which put a set of wheels within reach of millions of customers after they rolled onto the scene. Tata Motors is developing a car it aims to sell for about $2,500--the cheapest, by far, ever made.

There is a lot riding on its small wheels. If the yet-to-be-named car is a success when it goes on sale next year, it would herald the emergence of Tata Motors on the global auto scene, mark the advent of India as a global center for small-car production and represent a victory for those who advocate making cheap goods for potential customers at the "bottom of the pyramid" in emerging markets. Most of all, it would give millions of people now relegated to lesser means of transportation the chance to drive cars. It is a hugely ambitious project--rivals have called it possible--for any company. But it is audacious for one that hadn't even built cars a decade ago. <snip>


Rs 1 lakh car by 2008: Ratan Tata
The Financial Express — May 7, 2005

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata’s dream project, the “people’s” car, is all set to become a reality by 2008. “The car should be out some time in 2008. It is in the prototype stage and protypes are running. Its cost will be somewhere between a motorcycle and a car,” Mr Tata said in an interview to ‘The Week’ magazine. The vehicle was at the proptotype stage now and the company would soon start producing it before a formal launch in 2008, Mr Tata said when asked at what stage is the Rs one lakh car.

He said that the new vehicle may also be exported to other developing countries depending on its success in India. While country’s largest carmaker Maruti has already said that developing such a car would be difficult, Mr Tata is going ahead with the project with the aim of becoming numero UNO in India’s automobile sector (NOTED lated in article: When Tata Motors brought out the bare-bones Ace truck in May 2005 for just $5,100, it had a monster hit: The company sold 100,000 in 20 months. To try to keep up with demand, it offers the truck only in white to save the time it takes to change colors in the factory paint shop. Tata is building a new factory that will be able to turn out 250,000 a year starting this month - the average pay for factory workers at Tata Motors is just $5,500 a year). Along with development of the people’s car, Mr Tata said the group’s automobile arm — Tata Motors — was also focusing on expanding its current offering in the car market launching new models and introducing variants of existing vehicles.

“The next major releases will be variants of Indica and Indigo. There will be variants of existing cars but there will not be a new car from the ground up,” Mr Tata said in the interview. He, however, added that the company would soon be launching a small one-tonne commercial vehicle, which will have a passenger version similar to MUL’s Omni Van. <snip>.

[hunter]

1. One of my thought experiments...

What if we limited the engine size of privately owned passenger vehicles to 15 kilowatts? (20 horsepower)

It would be quite a crawl up California's Grape Vine, and maybe that would encourage people to ride the train.

But such a car would be perfectly useful around town.

[Jim Warren]

2. Not sure about the product yet

but ya gotta love a company that names a car "Indica".