An EV for $20,000? That seems like it would address the most pressing issue most prospective car buyers have with electric cars (namely, that they’re expensive). Automaker Tata showed up in Detroit last week with just such a prototype, titled the “Emo” (for Electric MObility).
Tata Technologies developed the Emo within just a few months, cheaply enough that the “estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $20,000 (US)” (according to Tata Technology). Combined with tax credits or incentives, the Emo could end up being actually affordable for the average consumer without a lot of cash to spare.
Rear Door? What Rear Door?
The Emo is super space-efficient – it claims room for four (adults), and indeed it does look like it would fit four adults, as long as no one is too tall or too wide. For what it’s worth, it’s actually bigger on the inside than the kei car I used to own, which did comfortably fit three small-ish Japanese women plus me – the Tata might be fairly comfortable around town.
There’s no B column between the front and rear doors, which open in opposite directions (and the rear door can’t be opened from the outside), which also serves to save space. How that will affect the passengers in an accident remains to be determined; while Tata claims the Emo passed an electronic simulation of a crash test, an actual test has yet to be carried out. The other odd thing about accessing the car is that there’s no rear opening whatsoever – any luggage going into the car has to go over the back seat (or in it!).
Tata hasn’t published many numbers about the car, but it should be able to hit 60mph and have a range of 100 miles. The Emo isn’t perfect, but it is trying to embody the qualifications American drivers seem to want in electric cars. It doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty cute, too.
Questions? Comments? Let us know, below the gallery.
Source: Autobild | Gallery: Tata Technologies.
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Hate to see what happens in the crash test (or worse, an actual crash).
I agree with Jeo.
The biggest problem with porting all these nice small efficient cars is US safety regulations.
Not that they are a bad thing, but they do add a significant amount of weight and structural changes that defeat or even make these cars useless.
I don’t think the safety regs are the issue – even cars significantly larger than these, like Suzuki’s current Swift, VW’s Polo, and (going further back) the Geo Metro ALL met or exceeded US safety requirements, and Americans, en masse, decided they were too small and spent their money on bloated SUVs that they “needed”.
Tata has always pushed the conventional thinking about building cars. In the Nano they looked at every which way to save costs including using a hollow pipe for the steering column to save costs. If they or someone else can look afresh at ways to reduce costs of EVs they will open up a huge market.
I believe there is a big market for EVs as a commuter second car with bare necessities but this has to cost under 20k.
Great idea, but most Americans really have convinced ourselves we “need” those 5,000lb. SUVs or trucks. We just never take something like this serious. Maybe it will eventually change, but I haven’t seen any indications yet.
In late November JD power put out a report stating that Sub-compact and Compact sales are overtaking mid-size vehicles (never mind that compacts are the dimensions that mid-size cars were 10 years ago meaning people are just opting for the same size as their last car only it is in a different size class now) and they expect sub-compact and compact to make up 20% of sales by 2015 so I don’t think the size will be an issue with the Tata. I expect that the issue will be that given the opportunity to drive one people will realize it is less a car and more a golf cart with doors.
If it has 16Kw of lithium batteries and gets the Federal incentive of $7,500 in the USA it could be very affordable.
Ending up at $12,500 and with rising gas prices they would not be able to make them fast enough. So now the USA will have imported cars instead of imported OIL. Oh we already have imported cars, no problem.