Would you be caught dead in this thing?

http://www.funkymotors.ie/blog/2008/01/10/tata-nano-worlds-cheapest-car/

After months of rumors and tantalizing leaks — and as we first told you earlier this week
— Indian automaker Tata Motors has finally unveiled the Tata Nano — its
already legendary €1,700 ($2,500) (1-lakh)car. As expected, the car
that Tata claims will change the face of not only the Indian car
market, but the global auto industry will be a four door, five seat
hatch, powered by a 30 HP Bosch 624 cc four stroke engine mounted out
back and mated to a CVT. That makes the Nano the first time a
2-cylinder gasoline engine will be used in a car with a single balancer
shaft. The Nano’s also expected to get 54 US miles per gallon. Yes, but
will it blend? Full press release after the jump with all the details.
By the way — are we the only ones happy to see a Tata Nano sporting
what looks like a bra above? Also — how long do we think it’ll take
before Apple files a lawsuit over the name?




What effect will the likes of this have on the Eastern economies? It's going to make us look like we're making a very poor effort with our measures here when developing nations can introduce something as simple as this. It has two-thirds the power of a 1 L Nissan Micra or Toyota Yaris so uses a good bit less petrol (although the mpg figures I found seem to be equivalent to the Micra's)

Wonder how much this yoke would sell for here if at all...?

No matter, we should be moving to electric vehicles for our cities and let the Indians and Chinese have their day high on petrol. Tata is also co-operating with Chrysler to get electric trucks marketable in the US. With the price of oil creeping up, that's good capitalism for you.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/tata_and_chrysler.php

Auditor #9 wrote:

...

No matter, we should be moving to electric vehicles for our cities and let the Indians and Chinese have their day high on petrol. ..

What do we use as a source of energy to recharge the electric cars ?

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

What do we use as a source of energy to recharge the electric cars ?

Couldn't we mine hygrogen using wind power and use that in fuel cells of hydrogen-powered cars? (sorry I meant generically non-fossil fuel burning cars when I said 'electric') Renewable energy in general could be used to recharge battery-powered cars like they already have in London.

I know SPN or david won't show up to tell me that there's such a low yield out of mining hydrogen with wind that we'll run into other difficulties. Maybe, but I don't believe it's true. The point about the tiny Nano above is that with a little bit of will and initiative rather than fancy engineering, the lifetime of your resources could be stretched while the next generation of sustainable vehicles and devices arrives.

Already Tata is manufacturing the Air Car which runs on compressed air but the same question applies as you posted above - what will compress the air in the first place? A combination of fossil and renewable means should be a lot better than doing what fans of the conventional car are doing - burning a gallon every 25 miles at best...

For some real fancy engineering look at this

http://kron1.eng.ox.ac.uk/pages/research/life-car.php

a hydrogen car which turns vapor in the air into movement.

Feck it but the English are putting their University professors over in Oxford to damn fine use chaps.

Surely you don't mine hydrogen, you get it from water. The trick is seperateing the hydrogen and the oxygen molecules, that takes a lot of energy.

Your super-English car produces vapour, it doesn't make energy from it. The way a hydrogen engine works is it uses the energy created by the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen, I think? Anyway simply put hydrogen and air go in, energy and water (your vapour) go out.

905 wrote:

Your super-English car produces vapour, it doesn't make energy from it. The way a hydrogen engine works is it uses the energy created by the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen, I think?

Yep, the elements are combined like that as far as I understand it too.

LIFECar will be based on the Morgan Aero Eight, and is powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell, which converts hydrogen � and oxygen taken from the air around it � into electrical energy...

I'll have to have a look at what those boxes mean later, could be words hiding behind them. Or they could mean that the car gets extra H from the air, requiring less topping-up.

Quote :

Surely you don't mine hydrogen, you get it from water. The trick is seperateing the hydrogen and the oxygen molecules, that takes a lot of energy.

I don't mean mine like coal but in the sense of getting it from somewhere. The most basic way is to pass electric current through water and it splits water into its constituent elements hydrogen and oxygen. Storing it seems to be a problem and as you say, how much energy goes in to get how much out? You'd need a favourable equation on that too.

Algae is getting a lot of focus as a very efficient producer of hydrogen too. If you google those two words you'll see a lot of research going on in that area.

Well there's nothing new in hydrogen fuel, the bulk of research now is in making it practical.

I knew Daimler Chrysler had a development hydrogen car built a couple of years ago at a research site in Germany - saw it on discovery channel or something similar

when looking for a link and came up with this

http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/mercedes-f600-hygenius.htm

Edo wrote:

I knew Daimler Chrysler had a development hydrogen car built a couple of years ago at a research site in Germany - saw it on discovery channel or something similar

when looking for a link and came up with this

http://www.hydrogencarsnow.com/mercedes-f600-hygenius.htm

Just admit it, you work for them.

I wish it were so!

Why bother with hydrogen. Try taking a leak against the wind and you will realise that Ireland has enough wind energy to supply Europe. Don't expect Magic Arse to promote an alternative to the petrol pump.

youngdan wrote:

Why bother with hydrogen. Try taking a leak against the wind and you will realise that Ireland has enough wind energy to supply Europe. Don't expect Magic Arse to promote an alternative to the petrol pump.

That would be the plan Dan - you need energy to make energy - personally Im more into the get energy from the wind and plug in your fuel cell- biodegradable car - but Im all for continuing research into Hydrogen technology - there will be no one answer to our energy needs in the future - but a conbination of many.

youngdan wrote:

Why bother with hydrogen. Try taking a leak against the wind and you will realise that Ireland has enough wind energy to supply Europe. Don't expect Magic Arse to promote an alternative to the petrol pump.

I've yet to see a car with a windmill. One of the problems with hydrogen is the energy used to isolate it; that's where wind comes in. It wouldn't neccessarily need a backup plant either.

And the other problem with Hydrogen is it's storage at the point of use, in a safe and dense enough form to be practical.

Do we need a thread dedicated to the production, storage, use etc of hydrogen ? Could be good.

Right yeah, hydrogen's what gave us the Hindenburg disaster. I forgot about that. Not exactly a shining record when it comes to transport then.

If a boat can have a sail why not a car. I was reading about the indian car and it had a picture of a potential buyer. It showed a lad on a honda 125 with the wife and 5 kids all piled up. To this guy that tata will look like a bentley

youngdan wrote:

If a boat can have a sail why not a car. I was reading about the indian car and it had a picture of a potential buyer. It showed a lad on a honda 125 with the wife and 5 kids all piled up. To this guy that tata will look like a bentley

Would you drive across Wyoming in it youngdan?

Another week like I had in the market and I will be walking.

The bookie never loses dan

The word prius is a Latin word meaning "to go before." A Toyota spokesman stated that "Toyota chose this name because the Prius vehicle is the predecessor of cars to come."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

The most famous hybrid to date - a normal car but with a golf-cart motor stuck onto it which kicks into operation when driving around town, is the Prius the mark of things to come, even if it does have the same fuel consumption as a Nissan Micra and alleged to be more resource-hungry than a Hummer when it's total life-cycle and battery are taken into account?

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/hybrid.html
http://www.omninerd.com/articles/Is_a_Hybrid_Worth_It
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3012/is_2_185/ai_n12937459
http://www.soultek.com/clean_energy/hybrid_cars/hybrid_car_types/toyota_prius_hybrid.htm
http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=25039

According to Toyota themselves they had sold over one million by June 2007
http://www.toyota.ie/about/news/story/f45337f5-307b-4181-a8a1-828c386534f6

Do they not have them in Ireland. It is a big car and can not be compared to a nissan micra. They are in great demand and command full sticker price. There was a waiting list of 6 months but I assume that now they are available in bulk

I'd love a prius but they're fierce spendy. But I wouldn't buy a micra, they're fierce ugly.

I just got a quote of €2200 for a 03 Prius.

Thing is the excess on that was €4000!!!!

cookiemonster wrote:

I'd love a prius but they're fierce spendy. But I wouldn't buy a micra, they're fierce ugly.

I was involved in a head on collision a number of years ago - in an Opel Corsa. As I was being wheeled out of the ambulance I heard the guy tell my then husband to be that if we'd been in a micra, we'd both be dead.

He said they cut more people out of Micras than any other car because they have very little up front.

I shudder every time I see one.

youngdan wrote:

Do they not have them in Ireland. It is a big car and can not be compared to a nissan micra. They are in great demand and command full sticker price. There was a waiting list of 6 months but I assume that now they are available in bulk

There's rakes of them here dan - don't know why people bother with nice big new cars with the state of the feckin pothole (remember them?) I drove inta tonight in Ballyvaughan. Good to hear you're going mad for em in the shtates.

(pothole country = good for Nissan micra - a classic car no matter how ugly, cookiemonster )

Oh the old micras are great and virtually indestructable. New ones are ugly as sin.