Turning on to Nano-man
So far, just about everyone seems to love the self-styled "world's cheapest car", the Tata Nano.
Writing on these pages, Indian motoring journalist Hormazd Sorabjee writes that "It thrilled me with its 'proper car' feel"; while for Adil Jal Darukhanawala of zigwheels.com, "The Nano has the makings of a mega winner."
And what's not to love? A five-seater car that does about 20 km per litre (that's 56 MPG in old money) and costs $2,000 - come on! - and it's not the end of the line, with Bajaj, the company that principally populates South and Southeast Asia's roads with auto-rickshaws, planning to launch its own tiny car (the Pico?) within two years.
Just about the only people sounding a cautionary note on the tiny Nano's giant appeal are environmental groups, notably the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
They judge it inappropriate for Indian cities, choked by traffic, where jams mean a journey across town can already be measured in hours.
"Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India. Cars choke cities, harm public health and guzzle more oil."
CSE's simple prescription is more investment in mass transit schemes.
Although one can see the logic of their argument, it's hard to imagine it prevailing.
Many Indian cities already have swarming bus networks and suburban rail networks. They're slowly being supplemented by true mass transit rail systems - up and running in Calcutta and Delhi, under construction in Mumbai and Bangalore.
That's the good news from the CSE's point of view. Here's some of the bad:
- Calcutta's system contains just one line, Delhi's three
- during the 30-odd years since a legal framework for the Delhi metro was established, the number of vehicles in the city has risen 10-fold
- according to the Delhi metro company, only about 2% of journeys in the city use rail
Delhi, and India, are hardly unique. Bangkok has acquired three mass transit lines within the last decade, which claim collectively to carry 400,000 people per day.
Sounds impressive; but it's less than the population increase in the city since they were built.
I've found these trains a pleasant ride on my all too infrequent visits, by the way. Travel is quite fast; and Delhi's escalators even incorporate special devices to prevent indelicate snagging and ripping of decorative rush-hour saris.
You'd ride them by choice, I think, if you could; but even as their riderships expand, the number of people riding the roads swells further and faster.
Against this backdrop, the CSE's plea for society to put the Nano aside and rely on greater investment in public transport looks more than a little forlorn.
Much of modern Asia is mimicking in a few decades the development that Europe went through in many. When you can upgrade from a bicycle to a moped, you do; and with the advent of cars priced as cheaply as the Nano, the next upgrade - from two wheels to four - is likely to become just as routine.
It's here, in my view, that we find the environmental significance of the Nano.
Regularly these days we hear appeals from politicians, climate scientists and environmental campaigners for societies to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. It's urgent, they say, and - this is the key message - it can be done, if everyone and every country does his/her/its bit.
In the context of a climate change set-piece such as the Copenhagen conference that took place a couple of weeks ago, such words acquire their own logical underpinnings.
When you later emerge blinking into the street, taste the hydrocarbon-laden air and perhaps even hail a taxi yourself, you wonder how firm those underpinnings really are; whether it really can be done.
Perhaps the lexicon of personal transport archetypes needs to acquire a new entry.
Rather than "the man on the Clapham omnibus", a previous generation's fictional commonsense arbiter, or "Mondeo man", the 30-something would-be-upwardly-mobile denizen of an anonymous dormitory town, we now need to introduce "Nano-man" - the Indian (or perhaps not just Indian) patriarch who now finds he can afford to transport his family by car rather than perched on the overcrowded seat of a moped, and - of course - why would you not? - chooses to do so.
(Apologies for the UK-centric examples there - I hope you can fill in your own regional equivalents.)
Western climate campaigners may worry about Nano-man, but if they reach for a stick to beat him with, a pepper-spray of "inequity" will be their desserts.
Car ownership in India, though growing fast, still amounts to only about 10 per 1,000 people - in the West, it's typically 50 times that. Neither western campaigners nor western politicians can make a cogent reason from that as to why Delhi's denizens must remain Nano-free.
And they will find little comfort behind the Nano's chief green claim. At 101 grams per kilometre (g/km), its carbon dioxide emissions are only a fraction down on the most frugal versions of existing small cars such as the Renault Clio (117g/km) or Nissan Micra (120g/km), even though their engines are significantly larger.
I suspect that what Tata sees as an affordable car, history will judge an icon of "small-but-clever-is beautiful" design. I expect that if I take my grandchildren to a motoring museum in a couple of decades' time, the Nano will stand in a line-up of revolutionary small cars alongside the Mini, the Beetle, the Model-T Ford and - er - the Trabant.
Tata's Nano is rumoured to be a great ride for the price. But it should scare the hell out of anyone assuming that the world has an easy trip to a low-carbon future.
I'm Richard Black, environment correspondent for the BBC News website. This is my take on what's happening to our shared environment as the human population grows and our use of nature's resources increases.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~)
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"Much of modern Asia is mimicking in a few decades the development that Europe went through in many."
Quite, so why can't they learn from our mistakes?
In 20 years time petrol powered cars will pretty much be an irrelevance for all but the most wealthy (and arrogant). And all those millions of Nano's will probably be being towed behind donkeys as India grapples desperately to become self-sufficient in energy.
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It also put out less emissions than the darling of the eco mafia , the Toyota PIOUS !!
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hey! i coined the name Toyota Pious - at least give me a credit ;)
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Can't wait for the "Earth hour" , got both patio heaters with new cylinders ready, I shall make a point of turning on every light both inside and outside , to assist health and safety in protecting the bumbling fools staggering in the dark, and I shall start up all three cars , for a total of 9.4 litres of petrol burning metal , and it will not make one jot of difference to the climate !!
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i can't wait to try out the nano! it sounds really good, and most convinient for a drive in india... where the traffic is slow and the scenery beautiful :)
i agree with you also that it will probably be in a museum of automobiles in a few decades where it will be seen as a pioneer of sorts...well lets hope so anyway!
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Great for me and the misses for a weekend summer break.
Will it tow and pull my 25' boat (that I use to sustainably fish) out of the water. Transport my extended family of grandkids to take a trip camping in the mountains. Reliably travel in all weathers, collect my firewood and general supplies, take my produce to markets, cart my dogs around etc. etc.
You folks who live a closeted life please give a few thoughts to us who have to live a life.
Cheers....
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Hi,
nice blog.this is an effort towards objective blogging! owever, I must say that the Europeans should also think of sacrificing a part of their luxuries- like having 250 types of flavoured yoghurt- as a concession to the poor Asian mimicking them! After all, you were on a civilising mission all around the nook and corner of this world and told everyone that yours was a superior culture. What choice do Asians have now but to imitate you? Please forgive the nano-Indians for being ambitious and thinking that they can be like you!They don't know what they are doing and forgive them for that!
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nano is going to be problem for the traffic in Delhi or other metros in India. Indian state is not actively responding to the needs of public transport in India. All right, learning from teh mistakes of Euopeans will be after committing the same mistakes.
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I cannot get over the fact that some of the first world inhabitants suddenly wake up when something like nano is launched! if this happens in Europe, it is asuperb innovation and if it is in Asia, it is a disaster to our'shared environment'. Why so much of concern about the shared earth now? let the Asians 'too' pollute the'shared' environemnt; don't monoolise in that. If you want to do something about it, look around your lives; believe me there are plenty to do there!
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'Regularly these days we hear appeals from politicians... It's urgent, they say, and - this is the key message - it can be done, if everyone and every country does his/her/its bit.'
A very key comment. And one I find hard to rationalise with what issues forth from many politicians, and the media that carry their press releases.
The only appeals I have heard of late are to support the car industry, and often ones that would be hard-pressed to be called 'green'. In crowded urban centres as described above, I agree mass transit initiatives would seem a much 'better' commitment.
But here the latest wheeze I heard of was paying the likes of me £2k to ditch my old car and buy a new Jag (who makes those?). Or maybe an LDV van? Sadly (financially, if not environmentally, from manufacturing impact to running) , I opted for a second hand LPG.
I'd just love to square the whole reduced eco-impact vs. growing economy thing, but just can't. I don't think it can be, at least in the ways being currently attempted, and with such blatant fudging if not dishonesty from the establishment.
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Let us give some credit to the innovators for coming up with this wonderful car. Let us not speak about its environmental impacts without understanding and knowing that developed nations have per capita co2 emissions in tonnes which are over 5-6 times that of a country like India! Does anybody here even know that the next cheapest car to the Nano in India, the Maruti 800 is only a few hundred pounds more expensive than the Nano and has been in the market for over 2 decades! There have always been cheap cars in India and this one is only a little more cheaper! The Nano with its 0.6 litre engine even if sold in millions will produce less co2 emissions than the average western 3 litre engine car. Every person on this planet has the right to pursue his happiness in full and this little car is going to fulfill many dreams in various developing countries across the world. The Nano is a scientific marvel and is more environmentally friendly than most cars in the world. Let us come to terms with reality before we post comments out of anger/disgust. Let us clean up our own houses before we point our fingers at others.
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A figure often used as a sustainable level of carbon emissions is 2 tonnes per person. But this is based on a global population of 6 billion. For the 9.5 billion expected to inhabit the world by 2050 this falls to 1.26 tonnes. But most of us are only directly responsible for around half of our emissions. This gives us a personal quota of 0.63 tonnes. Even driving the new Ford Fiesta Eco: a diesel car which emits 98g CO2 per km (a figure so low the British government won?t even make you pay car tax) means you could only drive 4000 miles before using up you allowance. This is before even flicking a light switch, cooking a meal or running the hot water tap. 4000 miles means a daily commute (assuming a 5 day week and 33 days holiday - typical in the UK) of 8.8 miles to work and back. Not very much at all. In other words reducing carbon emissions to the level required will mean personal use of the internal combustion engine needs to be banned (unless you advocate starving people to death by using food crops for biofuels, and lets not even pretend "2nd generation" biofuels are a viable proposition - they're what we used to call "wood" and would require mass deforestation thereby reducing the capacity of the earth to absorb CO2 and thus defeating the object). Does anyone think banning the internal combustion engine is likely? Does this mean the whole effort to fight climate change is futile? All we need to do is get a majority (or at least a plurality) of the world's 6.5 billion people to agree on a course of action which will decrease their living standards in the short term. Piece of Cake!
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I think the environmentalisst must use Nano design and help introduce cheap electric cars. Electric cars in itself are costly, so use the body design as the bench mark and reduce engine cost.
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It just goes to show how monumentally daft low energy light bulbs or any other green technology in Britain are. If governments really believed in AGW, they would do something about it apart from increasing taxes and setting up massive carbon trading scams.
They would add a massive tarrif to polluting coutries like India and China. They won't because that is where the banksters ill gotten gains will be invested.
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13. At 10:34am on 25 Mar 2009, theholeinmysole wrote:
I think the environmentalisst must use Nano design and help introduce cheap electric cars.
A small caution here. Until there is a way to deliver the 'leccy to the wheels without involving fossil fuels and/or huge wastes in transmission, reduction in/alternatives to high-carbon traveling might be a better focus.
With the current electric cars, and it's not their 'fault', remember the exhaust pipe is just in another place.
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"Cars may drive growth and aspirations, but they can never meet the commuting needs of urban India. Cars choke cities, harm public health and guzzle more oil."
CSE's simple prescription is more investment in mass transit schemes.
Although one can see the logic of their argument, it's hard to imagine it prevailing.
I can imagine it.
World leaders already seem to grasp that taking quick action against co2 emissions, is important. All that is needed now is for someone to compare the entire carbon footprint of all modes of transport. Add the carbon foot-print of making all the extra renewable energy sources needed to power 1 billion electric cars, to that of the extra hospitals required to repair all the extra victims.
If it is true that the carbon, human and financial costs of private motor vehicles outweigh the total cost of creating a better and safer rail alternative, then it shouldn’t be impossible to let our leaders know it. And because rail can be (if regulated properly) almost infinitely safer than road vehicles, is much more energy and possibly carbon efficient too, then it just might be.
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Population control is the only answer to Asia's problems. Education results in low population growth, but education levels are dropping as governments are unwilling to provide for increasing numbers of children.
Doing nothing is to elect evolutionary pressures to solve the problem. Not a humane solution. This will also result in an increased demand for countries that control growth and maintain sustainable societies to take on more of the burden.
Live in a sustainable society? Get ready to welcome a lot more immigrants.
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@toughNeilHyde
It just goes to show you can never be too careful.
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