Dean's World

180 miles of travel for 1 dollar

Mary Madigan

From Captain Scarlet at Silent Running:

A non-resident Indian American group of industrialists are planning to penetrate the American and European car market with electric, hydrogen and solar powered vehicles designed and manufactured in India. The initial testing showed a 64 horse power vehicle with 300 mile range can cost merely $4,000 with $1 for 180 miles of travel. That is a major break through says industry experts. If they can pull it through, India may have achieved the biggest technological breakthrough of the millennium.

It is a major breakthrough, and if it works, it should sell, but I don't know how many Americans will want to drive a car that looks like this.

Why can't they add a little more steel and plastic and make it look more like this?

[Link thanks to Judith at Kesher Talk]

Posted by Mary Madigan | Permalink | Technorati Trackbacks

(link)

Christiana (mail) (www):

Well, yeah, but if they added the steel and plastic, it wouldn't get 180 miles for a dollar anymore. I'm curious about that number anyway, because $1 worth of Hydrogen is one thing if you're buying it for a laboratory or something, and another thing entirely if you have to build an entire infrastructure to make it available to the average car-buyer.

*shrug* I hope this thing works out, just so it can provide an alternative. I wouldn't have much use for it personally though. I'm pretty tall and I don't think I'd even fit in that thing, much less with six bags of groceries.

4.25.2005 5:14pm

(link)

Publius Rex (mail) (www):

Dean, you can't be serious! Adding that much steel and plastic is going to drive operating costs up to at least $1.12 and everyone knows that no one is going to pay that!

/sarcasm

4.25.2005 5:19pm

(link)

Michelle Dulak Thomson (mail):

Aw, c'mon, Mary, I'd buy that. It's cute. Sort of like the SmartCar.

4.25.2005 5:23pm

(link)

maryatexitzero (mail):

I'd drive it too, (it is cute) but according to my informal survey of the male population, most guys wouldn't even want to be seen standing next to one. They just don't like the look of it. Which is too bad because this kind of car would be great for commuters.

4.25.2005 6:24pm

(link)

Dean Esmay:

I'm afraid I've been seeing stories of cars like that semi-regularly for 30 years now.

4.25.2005 6:30pm

(link)

maggie may - labrat:

I'll fight childhood obesity at the same time, since the kid's won't fit in there - we'll just let them run along the side.:)

How do you think that thing handles in a blizzard? I have to work no matter what the weather.

4.25.2005 7:15pm

(link)

Masked Menace (mail):

Blizzard? At 64 horse power I'm questioning it's ability to drive into a brisk headwind. :-)

BK

4.25.2005 8:02pm

(link)

Arnold Harris (mail):

Hey Mary,

I'm a man, and I don't think it's really all that bad looking. I happen to like motorcycles. And this one's got four wheels.

(Think positive.)

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

4.25.2005 8:37pm

(link)

Arnold Harris (mail):

PS: I want to remind all you boys and girls that the original VW microbuses through the early 1950s had 25hp engines. They got around pretty handily, and hauled a lot more than these Indian squatmobiles are expected to do.

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

4.25.2005 8:47pm

(link)

jane m:

I would not advise trying to merge onto the freeway or I-80 in one of those things or even turn left in a hurry at a busy intersection. No power = too scary.

4.26.2005 12:12am

(link)

Michelle Dulak Thomson (mail):

jane m,

You have a point as regards drivers around here (anyone know why the most liberal parts of CA boast the most SUVs per capita?). But last time I was in London it was full of various tiny cars that looked a lot like that. A Mini was almost average-sized in London. In an environment like that everyone can drive incredibly recklessly (which they do — people casually turn into streets wide enough for only one car without checking first to see whether anyone's coming at them from the other end, for one thing) without many people actually getting hurt. Around here it might be more Bambi vs. Godzilla.

4.26.2005 1:54am

(link)

Bryan Costin (mail) (www):

It's not bad looking really. Better than the bug-eyed commuter car proposals of the 1970's or the boxy ones of the 1980's. I think the problem is that commuter car concept just doesn't fit well for most people in this country. I have about a two-mile commute from home to work, so I suppose that in theory this would serve my needs. But it wouldn't be practical: I couldn't go grocery shopping after work, carpool friends out to lunch, pass the garbage truck that blocks my lane every Tuesday, or climb the hill to my house when it's snowing.

On top of that, I don't think people with short commutes want to buy a special car just to drive to work. And people with long commutes need a car with decent power, handling, and comfort. Who's left to buy this little guy?

4.26.2005 9:31am

(link)

B. Durbin (www):

People who live in Sausalito. :)

Actually, Sausalito residents could do with a tiny car, seeing as they have parking along one side of two-way streets that are barely big enough for one lane of traffic, but it would have to be stronger because of the steepness of those streets.

4.26.2005 12:40pm

(link)

Bithead (mail) (www):

The advantage here, of course is that the truck driver never even notices flattening you as he drives over.

No, thanks.
I chose LIFE.

4.26.2005 3:02pm

(link)

Sigivald (mail):

Remember, kids. Power, in practice, is relative to mass.

A '58 Fury with a 65HP motor will be a slug.

This tiny little thing that weighs nothing, with a 65HP motor, will be positively zippy.

I'm sure that little Indian car can smoke my old Mercedes that has a whopping 12 more horsepower... because I'm also sure it weighs half as much.

4.26.2005 3:12pm

(link)

maggie may - labrat:

Yeah - but will it plow through 10in of snow down a 250 ft driveway and over a snowbank so I can get to work on time? Will it have heat by the time I get the ten miles to work? Will it pull a sleigh for when I need to take my kids?

4.26.2005 9:51pm