Tata Motors to offer world's cheapest hybrid?
Tata Motors made a big splash when it announced the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest automobile. Could the Indian automaker follow that car up with the world's cheapest hybrid? Well, that really depends on your definition of hybrid, as Tata is said to be working on a more eco-friendly version of the Nano microcar that will feature stop/start technology and is referring to the machine as a micro hybrid. Semantics aside, the Bosch-supplied technology is expected to reduce fuel consumption and improve emissions by something like 5 to 10 percent. All that for a few hundred dollars.
Of course, being such an inexpensive machine, even a few hundred bucks is a big percentage of the Nano's $2,500 price tag, and Tata is worried that the new micro hybrid drivetrain will add too much cost to the car. Tata is also expected to launch diesel and electric versions of the Nano, and we're not sure what order each of the models will launch in, and we all know there are many factors that can influence Tata's timeline.
[Source: Hybrid Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
radler63 4:48PM (1/04/2009)
Well, golf carts already have start stop automatic - so Tata is not promising more than the state of the art.
see http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/04/29/why-yes-people-would-enjoy-stop-start-engine-technology/
What would be really interesting would be a cheap electric drive with the option to invest more or less in batteries related to the customers wish and the local battery exchange system....
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Brn 6:18PM (1/04/2009)
"Well, golf carts already have start stop automatic"
Exactly, and they've had it for DECADES.
The whole Nano thing continues to vaporware at the moment anyway.
ReneS 5:05PM (1/04/2009)
Start/Stop does not make it a hybrid... the word hybrid means mixed/bundled. The Nano needs a better engine and Start/Stop. Maybe the Smart 3-cylinder or maybe the GM/Opel 3-cylinder... but this is expensive of course.
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Glenn Mercer 6:09PM (1/04/2009)
Okay, let's talk Nano price, one more time. First, to avoid being flamed: I love the Nano, I think it is a great achievement, and whatever price it comes out at it will be one heckuva cheap car.
Now, with that out of the way, can we focus on the real retail price of this car?
First, you can trawl every Tata website you want and you will not see them committing to a $2,500 retail price. The company DOES call it the 1 lakh car, which is 100,000 rupees, which of course will vary in dollars: as of this posting my fx converter says that is $2,050.
Next, the 1 lakh figure is the wholesale price to the dealer. Various Indian media confirm this, as does Automotive News. And a post in the forum at the Tata Nano website says this, too. So we need to add dealer markup. This might be small (3%?) or large (10%?), but it must be added in.
Next, we need to add in taxes and fees and transport charge, which various India media report as adding about 20% to the base cost.
So let's call it $2,100 base, ad $400 for taxes etc, say $100 for the dealer (I doubt this but I want to be generous, remember I LIKE this car!) and we are at $2,600.
Now, MIX. The Business Standard back in June showed production planning figures for the car: 35% base model (1 lakh), 60% upgraded model (1.65), and 5% luxury model (2 lakh). Let's forget the luxury model for now and go with 35/65 base and upgraded. I figure dealer margin tax and fees will be proportionate to dealer price so I just do a weighted average of 35% $2,600 and 65% at $4,300 (1.65 times $2,600) and get an average price of $,3,700.
Is that still incredibly low? Yes it is. Is it still great? Yes it is. But it is NOT $2,500 retail, and it IS within striking distance of a low-spec Maruti 800 at 2 lakh or $4,100 (realizing I am unfairly comparing a mix of Nano's to a single Maruti).
And we have NOT yet seen Tata actually release a retail price list yet.
The point of all the above is to swim upstream against the media frenzy around the $2,500, by looking at real numbers. Not to dis the car but to be clear in our terms. Because in a country like India, a few hundred dollars one way or the other makes a BIG difference.
Thus endeth the rant!
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GoodCheer 9:48PM (1/04/2009)
I'm not sure why you need to average the prices of the base and non-base models.
Being able to buy a car for $2500 (or $2600 from you figures) is being able to buy a car for $2500. I don't pay the average of all sales prices, I pay what I pay.
right?
Glenn Mercer 11:43PM (1/04/2009)
You are absolutely right of course, from the point of view of the consumer. No argument. From the point of view of Tata, however, they will see "the Nano" selling for a higher average price.
One reason I brought this all up is the last big flap about ultra-low-cost cars was the Renault/Dacia Logan, which was to be the "5,000 Euro car." By the end of the first year of production the average sale price was well over 7,000. There is a lot of bait-and-switch in the auto industry, and while I have great faith in Tata, and do not doubt their good faith, I can also imagine that they hope they can upsell as much as possible everyone who comes into a dealership. A Tata spokesman at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show (I was in the audience when he said this) indeed said "We will depend on the higher trim levels to become profitable: we cannot make money with the base car alone."
That being said, your point is still right on: if a person can buy the car for $2,600 than a person can buy the car for $2,600!
I eagerly await Tata's announcement of when cars will be available (they are not even taking orders for it yet), and their price list.
(One thing I should have mentioned is that the Maruti I cited has AC standard: the Nano does not.)
Carney 11:38AM (1/05/2009)
Tata would be much wiser to go with an alcohol fueled model, since methanol and ethanol (at least outside the US with its tarriffs on Brazilian ethanol) are much cheaper than gasoline, not to mention much better for the environment.
In fact India should take a page from Brazil's playbook and make switching to alcohol national policy, in fact top prioirty.
It's even more urgent for India than it was for Brazil, because India has a serious problem with Muslim terrorists who are manufactured in marassas funded by Saudi oil money. Every time Indians fuel up, the are funding madmen who wish to murder Hindus even more urgently than Westerners.
Islamic theology proscribes a degree of "tolerance" for Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians who accept dhimmitide, a subordinate position in society with special taxes and without the right to own weapons or sue or testify against a Muslim in court (thus being helpless against any Muslim who harms them). However for "polytheists" like Hindus Islamic tradition offers only conversion or death.
We can help by mandating that flex fuel be a standard feature in all cars sold (not just made) in the US. That would make the Europeans, Japanese, and Koreans switch their production lines to flex fuel to retain access to our market and avoid needless duplication, thus making alcohol capability the worldwide standard.
Ending the unnecessary status quo of the world's transportaiton fleet being locked into oil only would end the monopoly prices OPEC and its free riders can charge, dramatically and permanently collapsing the price of fuel and fertilizer, and drastically cutting into the mischief budgets of the Islamists, narco-Marxists, Russians, and other troublemakers.
Did I mention the Third World jobs boom that growing crops for ethanol and processing ethanol and methanol fuel will cause?
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Adil Paki 9:05AM (2/11/2009)
TATA - To Adults That Average
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