By Agence France-Presse

SINGUR, India — His voice shaking, security guard Sanjib Chowdhury says he fears opening the gate of the eastern Indian factory that is assembling what will be the world’s cheapest car.

Furious farmers and rights groups say the expropriation of land in West Bengal state for the plant was little more than theft and protesters are doing their best to throw a spanner in the works.

“Villagers are threatening to kill us if we keep working at the site,” he quakes through the iron gate of the project where the Nano, dubbed the “king of econoboxes” with its promised price tag of $2,500, is being made.

“I didn’t report for duty for two days, I was so scared,” Chowdhury said at the factory in Singur in West Bengal, viewed by the state’s Marxist government as a test case for drawing more big-scale industry to the impoverished region.

The car — which Tata chairman Ratan Tata conceived with the aim of getting Indians off their motorcycles and into safer cars — was unveiled with huge fanfare early this year at India’s premier automobile show in New Delhi.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Caroline Ng and Fung Yu
Contributors

Author’s Note: The 3D images linked to this article uses Adobe Flash technology, which provides an immersive experience by means of virtual reality technology. Flash 9.0 is required to view the 360-degree, 3D images.

I’m shopping for a new car, specifically a small one with an engine displacement of 1.3L or below. After seeing the purchasing power of my money getting weaker amid the rising pump prices that seem to have no end, costly automotive parts replacements and increasing maintenance cost, the perennial traffic problem of Metro Manila, I believe it’s about time I retire my aging car and switch to one that gives greater fuel economy, more creature comforts, environmental compliance, and plenty of available cup-holders.

Car manufacturers who anticipate more increases in fuel cost but are also conscious of protecting the environment, have rolled out respective minis or compact cars. They range from the 0.8L Suzuki Alto and the Chery QQ to the 1.3L Toyota Vios/Avanza, Honda Jazz/City, and Nissan Sentra GX. In between, we also have the 1.0L Chevrolet Spark, plus the 1.1L Kia Picanto and the Hyundai Getz.

Most cars run on petroleum products derived from oil, which is a non-renewable source of energy. Oil is formed by the compression and heating of ancient organic materials over time. The oil we use today was formed by the preserved remains of prehistoric planktons and algae over the past 200 million years (remains of prehistoric land-based plants and trees turn into coal). This is the reason why oil is called a fossil fuel.

[Read the rest of this entry »]