The Nano won't be lonely: Renault announces ultra-low cost car
A few days ago there were rumors floating around about a new agreement between Bajaj Auto and Renault. Sure enough, the two marques have announced a partnership to build Tata Nano rival. They announced that the new vehicle that is under development, named ULC (which probably comes from Ultra Low Cost), will be put on sale in India by 2011 for about $2,500. They expect to sell 200,000 cars per year. A new 400,000 unit factory will be built in Chakan (Maharashtra state). India is the initial target market, but if the US credit markets don't get sorted out the U.S. could be looking for something like this soon too.
Bajaj is India's largest motorcycle manufacturer and Renault has already quite an experience with low-cost vehicles, with the largely successful Dacia Logan. This reopens the debate once more: Having more and more cars on the roads is not good for the planet, but who can withdraw people in developing countries right to drive cars when we've driven them before?
[Source: Nissan, Autoblog en español (Sam Abuelsamid contributed to this post)]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
davewin 6:29PM (5/13/2008)
According to today's WSJ the target price of the Renault/Nissan is going to be $2,500 *wholesale*, so it won't be as inexpensive as the Nano.
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