インドでは今年新品で36万円の4ドア乗用車が発売される

http://www.economist.com/theworldin/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10094790&d=2008

Indians will have the first chance to buy the world’s cheapest car in 2008. Delayed by design changes and protests over the site of its new factory, the car is due to appear on the market around mid-year. With a two-cylinder, 30-horsepower, rear-mounted engine and four doors it is aimed at those trading up from scooters and three-wheelers. In launching it, Tata Motors, part of India’s largest private firm, will start a controversial trend.

When it was first conceived, the 1 lakh (100,000 rupees) car was to have cost the equivalent of $2,000 before tax. With the drop in value of the dollar and the hike in raw-material costs it is now likely to be more like $3,000. Yet this is still less than half the price of today’s best-known low-cost car, the Renault Logan.

おぉ。途上国特有な3輪のオートタクシーや原付が減って、車が一気に増えるんだろうなぁ。インド久々にいきたいなぁ。30馬力（笑）プラスチックと糊を多用（笑）

With an initial target of 1m units a year, the new vehicle will double Indian car output. The company says it plans to replicate the approach in other developing countries too, so volumes can grow bigger still. Moreover, after scoffing at Tata’s plans, other big carmakers such as VW, Renault, Toyota and GM are hurriedly designing ultra-low-cost cars of their own.

トヨタやルノーやGMなど他の自動車メーカーも「ウルトラローコスト乗用車」の開発を急いでいる、とな。そりゃそうか。

This is good news for the world’s (comparatively) poor, and for those seeking the status, mobility and independence that comes from a car. It should be good for the manufacturers too, although margins will be extremely thin. But with concerns about oil security, fuel prices and the environment reaching new highs in 2008, hardly anyone else will welcome this flood of more cars on the world’s roads.

貧しい人たちは喜ぶだろう。自動車ゲットに伴うステータスも得られるだろう。でも、石油価格は高騰するだろうし、環境問題的にはよくないよねぇ、と。