Tata Nano beater in Lombardy: The €2,900 LPG Chevrolet Matiz
Click on image for a complete gallery of the Chevrolet Matiz
In Europe, you can get a Chevrolet for less money than some scooters. In fact, the price is lower than even the Tata Nano is expected to get when it's on sale in Europe: Starting with an MRSP of about €10,000, the price can be dropped to €2,900 with various incentives (for those of you in Lombardy, Italy, anyway). Part of these incentives are due to the LPG (Liquiefied Petroleum Gas) conversion kit. The car is a Chevrolet Matiz, soon to be replaced by the local version of the Spark, and this is how the numbers break down: there's a €1,500 discount from Italy's scrapping plan, €2,000 for purchasing a LPG vehicle, €800 direct from Chevrolet, and €3,000 from the Lombardy region to stimulate the purchase of new cars. And, if the Matiz is too small, you can get an Aveo for about €4,400.
Gallery: 2008 Chevrolet Matiz
[Source: Le Blog Auto]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mark 6:49PM (4/04/2009)
Matiz is a pretty popular car here in Italy. Strange that Chevy make it here but not in the US. I will recommend it to my mother in law as she would like a new car.
A few countries in Europe have the scrappage scheme and it works out really well. I isn't a silver bullet but does encourage people to upgrade which is better for effiency and the environment.
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Noz 8:58PM (4/04/2009)
Mark,
You won't see cars that small here because A) Americans won't fit in them OR if that doesn't apply, B) their egos are too big.
Of course, there are a minority of Americans who do care but for the most part, they'll be to busy over at Autoblog wanking off to cars like the X6 M and such. You do need 550 HP to get a bag of groceries of course.
Frank N. 12:20AM (4/05/2009)
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/04/02/sema-comes-out-against-cash-for-clunkers-again/
Many of these cars aren't frequently driven, if at all, so destroying them will not clean the nation's air or make us less dependent on foreign oil." The AAIA puts the whole thing even more bluntly: Cash for Clunkers "will harm the environment, negatively impact car owners, waste billions of taxpayer dollars and hurt the hundreds of thousands of vehicle service and repair businesses in America."
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Kalle 10:02AM (4/05/2009)
Strange that LPG is not popular for driving cars here in Malta... Its more common in Poland, Belgium etc. Don't know about Italy?
Bought 12 kg in cylinder for 6.4 euro yesterday, which I believe compares to about 12.5 litres of gasoline. So it's basically half the price of gasoline.
But Last time I checked a gasoline to LPG conversion kit is about 3-4000 euro.
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Kalle 10:20AM (4/05/2009)
Correction: a 12 kg cylinder is 7.4 euro here... Apperently subsidized by the government. It cost them about 9 euro to produce a 12 kg.
Seems there are some forces wokring on introducing LPG for vehicles here.
I'd think 1000 euro for a conversion kit is a bit low. But perhaps true these days?
Links:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/business/view/20081218/news/conversion-to-autogas-to-cost-about-1-000
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090331/local/enemalta-announces-lpg-price-increases
jcwinnie 12:19PM (4/06/2009)
Of course, it has to be LPG rather than CNG because if GM goes down, which it is, might as well try to take the Planet with it, all for the sake of some lousy oil stock. BAUAAAE (Business As Usual And Above All Else)
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