TaTa Builds a Small Car for Big Markets
Mar 20th, 2008 by Art Deco
India and China are joining the developed world, and they need a different kind of car. China is already the world’s second largest market for cars, and India is catching up fast. Both already have big problems with air pollution and traffic. China’s air pollution is so bad that athletes are training elsewhere for the Olympics, and most Indian cities already face critical levels of air pollution.
India is the world’s fourth-largest overall producer of greenhouse gas (it ranks far lower in per-capita terms). Its carbon emissions are expected to triple by 2020, according to the United Nations. The Center for Science and Environment warns more cars will only increase India’s congestion and smog-related illnesses.
Most of the hand-wringing over the new Tata Nano has focused on its environmental impact but, there is mounting concern that increased demand for petroleum will boost prices.
“In none of our reports did we assume there’d be a car like this,” Judi Greenwald, a researcher with the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said in a recent Newsweek interview. “This is a new category. It will effect everybody’s projections.”
Tata counters that the Nano is cleaner than the scooters it will replace and claims the car’s catalytic converter cuts emissions by 80 percent. It is also projected to get over 50 mpg.
The Nano supposedly emits 30 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, well below the 160 g/km average of Europe’s cars and far less than the 130 g/km standard the European Union will adopt in 2012. Even if half a million Nano’s hit the road and each of them travels 5,000 miles a year, they will be responsible for less than 8 percent of India’s annual CO2 emissions, Economic Times reports.