Tiny, cheap and super fuel-efficient

Suzuki Swift


The Suzuki Swift is a fuel-efficient compact diesel on the Global Market. Truly a ‘global car’ manufactured in Hungary, Japan, China and India, yet it still is unaffordable to many. Now car makers seem serious about producing in China and India a very inexpensive mini car

When last we looked in on the global market for mini-cars, Tata and Renault-Nissan had their sights set on a price point of US$3,000 car for new car buyers in China and India, whereas Honda and Renault-Nissan would seem to have their sights set on the market for mini-cars in Europe.

As previously noted, the Indian market is extremely competitive, with GM, Hyundai and Indian automakers Maruti and Tata dominating. Thus, it is difficult for other manufacturers to gain market share.

Nissan-Renault would seem to be making a concerted effort to enter this market. Green Car Congress1 reports that it would seem that Renault and Bajaj are teaming up to produce small, low-cost (~US$,3000) cars in India.

Which carmakers would that effect? Well, Hans Greimel2, writing for the Charlotte Observer, would seem to imply that it primarily is a concern to Japanese carmakers. Tiny, cheap and super fuel-efficient, minicars are essentially an update of post-WWII cars that appeared in Europe with motorcycle-sized engines on four wheels.

Greimel reports that minicar sales in Japan have been climbing since 2004; they jumped to 5.2 percent last year, setting a sales record of 2.02 million vehicles. Known as “kei,” or light, cars in Japanese, they now account for more than a third of all new cars sold.

Minis are limited to an engine size of up to 660 cubic centimeters and restricted by law to being no bigger than 11.2 feet long and 5 feet wide. A futher restriction, just beginning to appear throughout the global market, is that mini car should produce less that 120 grams of CO2 per kilometer traveled.

Some inductry observers say that such a price point is impossible, but Tata Motors for one seem to be williing to try. There are investigating different thermoplastics or even bioplastics for the shell. Amory Lovins has noted that the economics of making a car body ultimately can be improved by changing to a much smaller number of body parts snapped together and glued. Such a change in manufacturing drastically alters “the body shop”. Who knows, they might even be made of Super Paper.

Continue reading here: Solar Reserve

Was this article helpful?

0 0