The Tata Nano

Tata, an Indian car manufacture, anounced the release of the Nano Jan. 10 in New Delhi. The car boasts the title as the "world's cheapest car" cashing in about $2,500. At face value the car sounds like a excellant deal. Tata advertises that its 33 hp, two cylinders engine gets excellent gas mileage (lower than most of the motorcycles on the road in India). It also claims that it has excellent government requirements in crash testing.

However, controversy comes with the price. According to TimesOnline, Tato cut costs to meet their price. Safety features like two side mirrors were not installed. India also has limited crash testing requirements. If Tata was to properly crash test the vehicle so it could operate in Europe, it would double the cost of the car. While the car gets great gas mileage and has low emissions, India Times, argues that because of the low price, their will be many new customers that once were not able to buy a car. These new customers will hurt the enviroment according to the article. Also, in an another article by India Times, protesters showed up at the unveiling stating that farmers were robbed and not paid for their land that was used for the plant to make the cars.

India has a extremley high rate of deaths invovled in car accidents every year. Last year there were 90 thousand deaths on the roads. While India's drivers count for 1% of drivers in the world, their driving lead to 8% of the total driving deaths in the world.

So what should happen? Should people be able to drive a car when before they could not afford one, even though if it means that there will be repercussions?

* I understand that in America we drive the worst cars for the environment. This article is not to debate if America is better than the rest of the world. If it was, America would loose the bet. This article is to make you think about the costs that we have to make for luxury.