Just What Polluted, Overcrowded India Didn't Need - A $3,000 Car - Independent

[hatrack]

EDIT

This explosion of new affordable vehicles is poised to have a number of dramatic effects on the country - most visibly adding further traffic to roads that are often filled with rickshaws, bicycles, people and animals.

Yet while consumer demand for such vehicles is high, there are also considerable concerns about the environmental impact these countless thousands of new cars will have, not just in terms of adding to the congestion of India's cities, but increasing the already mounting emissions of CO2 the country is pumping out.

"Sales have been increasing year by year," said Himanshu Tandon, the general manager for sales at a Hyundai dealership in Delhi. "It's basically the middle class. Loans are getting easier now, banks are making it easier to get better rates, and more and more people are going for it. In India, the growth in sales has been in the small-car sector. "It's not about - it's about necessity. People require four wheels, with A/C. They cannot go on a bike or scooter anymore. It's entry level cars. Larger cars are for people with extra money. The first car is always a small car."

Though India's roads are often jammed with motorbikes and three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, its total number of cars is very modest by world standards. Figures suggest a vehicle density of just seven cars per thousand people. By contrast, the US has 477 vehicles per thousand and the UK has 373.

EDIT

http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2692472.ece

[razzleberry]

1. getting rid of an armada of blue-smoker motocycles ...

will have local benefit