Nano Technology

by Don Boudreaux on January 13, 2008

in Environment, Innovation, Standard of Living

In today’s Washington Post is this report about how terrible it is that countless more Indians will be able to afford automobiles now that Tata has introduced its Nano, priced at $2,500.   Chief among the laments, of course, is the fact that such prosperity will result in the creation of more greenhouse gases.  (But Mira Kamdar, the author, rather inconsistently also frets that such an inexpensive car might further diminish the U.S. auto industry.)

For a much more clear-headed assessment of what the Nano means for ordinary Indians, read this blog post by Barun Mitra.  Here are some key paragraphs:

Not
surprisingly, there are many who have expressed concerns about the
prospect of the masses accessing personal automobiles. The issues they
raise range from the impact on oil prices and a concern for global
warming, to traffic congestion. Most such commentators have not
been known to eschew their personal automobiles, or other
modern conveniences, but have no qualms in frowning upon the masses
enjoying some of the same benefits. This desire to keep others off the
life-boats of their standard of living is a common feature of many who
claim to have social or environmental concern in their hearts. One fact
worth reminding them of is that transportation is one of the biggest
expenses faced by rural poor seeking health care.

 The
opposition to Nano is also an illustration of the head-in-the-sand
mind-set, which pits rising demand for consumption against
environmental conservation.

In fact, as more Indians are able to
afford more cars, the scale of consumption will help improve the
technology, improve efficiency and clean up the environment. It is not
a coincidence, that Toyota’s
ascent up the world auto league has been accompanied by its pioneering
efforts in new technologies and innovation. Though counter-intuitive,
it is true of most areas of enterprise that only enhanced scales
of consumption lead to improvement in efficiency – in this case, easily
measured by tail-pipe emission. It is worth noting that while Toyota sold well over 9 million vehicles in 2007, Tata Motors took ten years to sell its millionth passenger car.

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  • Martin Brock

    I saw this type of car all over England and Italy last year, presumably at higher prices but similarly sized and styled. They've clearly been around for a while. I never ever see any of them in my neck of the woods. Apparently, there's no market for them here, so I don't see how they threaten the U.S. industry's domestic sales. Maybe some other Tata model does.


    Also, I suppose the $2500 price tag is just some Indian price multiplied by an exchange rate. This isn't the price of the car sold in the U.S.


    The cost of fueling this car probably exceeds the car payment, so I expect people owning it to be more efficient consumers of fuel. Anyone able to afford this car but unable to afford existing cars can't afford much fuel either.


  • The car you saw in England and Italy is the Smart. It may be similar in size and shape, but it's wort 30 000€.


    Even license-free cars (motors smaller than 60CC if I am not mistaken) are worth three times as much as the Nano. It truely is an awesome innovation.

  • "desire to keep others off the life-boats of their standard of living"


    Great line.


    BTW, the Smart Cars seen all over Europe aren't allowed to be sold in the US because of, naturally, Federal regulations. The highway safety standards are, in particular, are the perfect example of one-size-fits-all regulations being applied to a car that is intended to stay off highways. It would make a city like New York far better off than it is with the standard autos that currently rule our streets. If only Congress were as smart.

  • Martin Brock

    That was it. Looks like a four seater chopped in half. At the current exchange rate, 30,000€ is considerably more than I paid for my Saturn Vue (an SUV) a few years ago, like nearly twice as much. What the dollar buys in Europe these days is a little alarming.


    I'm extremely skeptical that Tata could sell a car for $2500 in the U.S., but I suppose all my kids would have one off me if I did. That's a scary thought too.


  • Martin Brock

    Yeah, I was amazed at where the Smart drivers managed to park. I don't live in N.Y., but we don't know the meaning of "crowded" over here.

  • kebko

    Have you seen reports of the Tata car that supposedly will be in production within a year that runs on compressed air?


    http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/21/a-new-agreement-between-tata-motors-and-mdi-bring-the-air-car-cl

  • ...going to italy for my honeymoon, I loved the smart car...when i got back, and found out that you couldn't get one in the u.s., i was disappointed.


    Thankfully, however, that's about to change. :) The fortwo (two seater version) is coming in 1Q 2008, according to their website:


    http://www.smartusa.com/


    find a dealer near you:

    http://www.smartusa.com/smart-usa-find-a-dealer...>

  • Abhinav

    If I may, The Nano is Bharat stage-III compliant, the emission norms that won't come to force here in India till 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano#Technica... .


    In fact, in a city like Calcutta, the car might literally be "spewing" out exhaust cleaner than the air it breathes in

  • abhinav, you may, and I'm glad you did...thanks for the pointer.

  • vidyohs

    "In fact, in a city like Calcutta, the car might literally be "spewing" out exhaust cleaner than the air it breathes in


    Posted by: Abhinav | Jan 14, 2008 9:36:29 AM"


    Global Cleaning!


    God, I hope not! Ai yi yi! It's a disaster in the making for the Goreacle and his crowd.


    One thing we can't afford is to drown in the tears of the global warming kooks when some genuine "Global Cleaning" occurs.


    Between the Global Wetting we have been getting in Texas this year, and the Global Cleaning that might happen in India, it might be a pretty decent world for my kids to raise children in.

  • Martin Brock

    vidyohs: "Between the Global Wetting we have been getting in Texas this year, and the Global Cleaning that might happen in India, it might be a pretty decent world for my kids to raise children in."


    Your kids are environmental pollutants, and you should be ashamed of yourself for producing them. We must tax them away from you to teach you a lesson.


  • Martin Brock

    kebko: "Have you seen reports of the Tata car that supposedly will be in production within a year that runs on compressed air?"


    I was skeptical when I read this, but it seems to be on the level and very soon to hit the market. It's one of those ideas that seems too obvious to be viable, but the compressed air containment seems a key. It must contain very great pressure yet be light enough and not rupture catastrophically. Materials with these properties appear only recently.


    According to the backers, range is adequate for local driving, cost of producing the vehicles is lower, maintenance cost is lower, the "batteries" degrade more slowly than others and don't pollute, refueling time is comparable to gasoline and the cost of fuel (electricity) is lower. Petrol hybrids have comparable range. So they say. We can't believe the pitchmen, but the pitch seems plausible, and viable producers are signing on.


    If they're right, why wouldn't these vehicles sweep gasoline powered cars off the roads the way Windows swept DOS away? Only time will tell, but this innovation looks far more radical than the $2500 petrol car, which costs more to fuel than it costs to own.


  • Martin Brock

    A competitive electric car could be very good for the U.S. We're far ahead on infrastructure like the power grid, not to mention roads, and we have abundant coal reserves. The environmentalists don't like coal, but scrubbing the emissions at a power plant could be more economical than scrubbing automobile exhaust, and policing any regulation is certainly easier.

  • joe

    the article's mistake is that the affordability , and new money in the car business - would enable to enhance the cars in the dimension of clean air , and not other dimensions that are more important to the consumer .


    And even assuming enhanced car efficencies , who's to say that the enhanced efficenecis would be larger then the total pollution generated by the new demand ?


    but it's totally agreable that the indian people are entitled to benefit from cars in the same ways americans benefit from them.

  • vidyohs

    "Your kids are environmental pollutants, and you should be ashamed of yourself for producing them. We must tax them away from you to teach you a lesson.

    Posted by: Martin Brock | Jan 15, 2008 10:12:54 AM"


    Yup, pollutants no doubt, as are we all, alas and alack (archaic expression for the muirducks of the world). But I did teach them early on to breath using reverse undulated inverted innoculation chest compressions which converts most carbon dioxide back into partially oxygenated molecular particles for future consumption by non aquatic species of furball bearing animateds.


    Their mother was a foxy little Canuck, so I enjoyed my shame, shame oh sweet shame, whither hast thou gone?


    Too late to tax them away, as they say in Oakland, Calif. "Dat dun b dun."


    Thank you very much.

  • Kuch

    Anyone know where in Texas we can test drive a Nano?? I have seen a few on the road, and once saw a truckload of them on IH 10, going west. We are in San Antonio.

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