Suzuki chairman on Tata's 59 mpg, $2,500 car: details, please
Recently, we told you Tata's $2,500 car would get 59 miles per gallon and, while exited, you had a lot of questions about the car. You are not alone. Suzuki Motor's chairman Osamu Suzuki told reports there were still big questions about Tata's car and seemed to imply it probably won't impact Suzuki. Here is exactly what Osamu Suzuki says about Tata's $2,500 car:There is a slight lack of clarity about this $3,000 figure. Does it refer to the actual retail price? Or does it refer to the cost of materials that are used in preparing this automobile? It's not quite clear. ... There's not much clarity about which standards, and which year, this $3,000 car is aiming to fulfill. ... Will airbags be included? Will seat belts?
Right now, in Europe we have the Euro3 standards, and soon we will have the Euro4 standards and around 2013 the Euro5 standards will also be implemented. Are [Tata] only planning to release it domestically in India? Are they thinking of exports? There is so much that is not known about this car. ... Our fundamental stance is that rather than Suzuki becoming very concerned about watching over our shoulder to see what other people are doing, we'll move forward at our own pace.
Makers of small, econo-boxes like Suzuki and Honda probably have the most to worry about cars like Tata's Rs 1-lakh. The $3,000 price Osamu mentions is a price some say the car may actually sell for instead of $2,500. In fairness to Tata, the comments we told you about seemed to be a slip and the official debut is in January 2008. There are still very big questions but Tata is Indian's #1 automaker and may have bought Jaguar and Land Rover, so don't write off this car just yet.
Related:
[Source: Rediff]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
planetautomatic 6:02PM (4/03/2008)
@spw
Jan26th - 2 weeks after the release of the Nano. Its funny to go through these comments.spw is probably eating crow crap, now you know how its done - Compliments from the TATAs :)
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planetautomatic 6:03PM (4/03/2008)
@SPW ,Feb 29th, your an idiot , nice to see a low self-esteem rumour monger like you beat your head with your own shoe. Suzuki had to high-tail it , humbled and whipped.
TATA power baby, and @spw you need broad developed shoulders to hide from class.
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ashvin 6:55AM (7/11/2008)
July 11-2008, the Nano is already being tested and will be launched around 5-Oct2008.
The car has met all emission norms, and Mr Suzuki now is just worried that the crap cars which he sells in India are no longer gonna be welcome. The technology and materials used in the car are not the conventional ones which are used in normal cars. And btw Bosch is supplying common rail direct injection (CRDi) systems for the diesel Nano as well as engine control units (ECUs) for both the powertrain variants. It cut cost on the normally expensive CRDi system by using a single plunger pump instead of three, opting for lower pressure and sourcing locally-made pumps. The ECU, too, is smaller and cheaper. The sensors are less complicated, but with more intelligent software .
Wake up and smell the coffee, just coz the car is affordable does not mean cheap material is used.
Watch the car in action for real
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtn7yRRqrKQ
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planetautomatic 8:49AM (3/31/2009)
Plunk ! Plunk ! Plunk !
Thats Mr. osama suzuki shitting bricks as the Nano kicks his butt.
Hes an ass who till a few years scoffed at indian engineering and said the TATAs
could never build it.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2007/12/suzuki_revs_up.html
Run Osama, Run. Suzukis are going to get a licking in India.
Oh how the mighty have fallen :)
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Benjamin Jones 11:54AM (12/27/2007)
Watch your typo on "suziki" there...
However, I will, for now, take the same stance as suzuki-san on this one...This car is, for the price it is, is not likely to influence the mainstream, if it is even released outside of India. I'm sure his comments about seatbelts was tongue in cheek, but there are serious concerns over safety when you build something so inexpensively...I think those concerns put the car largely out of the minds of Japanese car companies, who in the 60s learned that there is a premium for safety that everyone should have.
------
Benjamin Jones
http://www.ecomodder.com
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Lascelles Linton 12:14PM (12/27/2007)
Benjamin, Thanks. Fixed.
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Whopper 2:16PM (12/27/2007)
Now wait a minute. Average manufacturing labor cost in India is around $1 per hour. Toyota, the most efficient vehicle assemblers in the work, take around 30 labor hours to build a car. If the car is going to have just the basic engine/transmission brakes and lights it seems like Tata has to have at least $1K to $2K in labor in the vehicle. So what happened to the material cost? Suzuki isn't worried because they know what it takes to build a car and $2,500 doesn't cover the cost.
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calebe 1:44PM (12/27/2007)
$3000 dollars for materials would put the car in the average car market. Deutsche Bank's report on auto cost stated that the average car in Europe cost $2500 in materials (VW Golf). Renault spends $1800 on the Logan. It's obvious Tata is talking about a $2500 retail price.
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Lascelles Linton 2:27PM (12/27/2007)
You are all ignoring the obvious explanation: alien technology :D
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steven 4:06PM (12/27/2007)
@4: They plan to recover the extra costs required to price the car at $2500 by jacking up the price of their Jags & Land Rovers. Kinda like what Toyota does with the Prius.
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spw 11:40AM (12/28/2007)
Tata is crap manufacturer that makes crappy cars. Rover went out of busiess due to warranty costs of imported and modified Tata's. They had to build an line in the port just to fix obvious issues with the cars as they got them, because Tata could not.
I dont think anyone is looking over their shoulder for Tata in developed countries.
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