Under $3000: The Race To Build Really Cheap Cars

Started by TehBorken, Apr 27 07 07:03

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TehBorken

[a href="vny!://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/under_3000_the.php"]Under $3000: The Race To Build Really Cheap Cars[/a]

Renault-Nissan is planning on [a href="vny!://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/under_3000_the.php"]building a car for under $3000[/a]. The price could be as low as $2500, which is 40% less than the least expensive sub-compact car available today. The Chief Executive of the company, Carlos Ghosn, made this announcement at a plant-opening on April 4. An Indian carmaker, Tata Motors, plans to launch a $2500 car next year. This race for the really cheap car could have a major impact on the industry as a whole.

 
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.

Russ

I really hope they come out with something like this... Vehicles have been getting more and more expensive, as well as hideously complex. Why?

  I mean a truck used to cost like 15k new.. now they are what.. 50k?

  With new methods of manufacturing, and newer cheaper more lightweight materials.. why so complex and expensive.    
Mercy to the Guilty is Torture to the Victims

Lil Me

  Russ wrote:
With new methods of manufacturing, and newer cheaper more lightweight materials.. why so complex and expensive.
 --
 Good thoughts all around, Russmeister.  But there's always the hideous R&D cost to recoup.  It's a huge Catch-22.   Massive design cost + cheap manufacturing + cheap materials still = expensive car.
 
 My cynical mind thinks that if the industry is going to build and market insanely cheap cars, it's only to promote the "disposable" culture and increase the # of unit sales.  The cars are going to crap out pretty quickly, as you know that noone will bother to perform routine PM on a cheap car.
   
 
 
"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."  Robert Heinlein