Let us talk about Indian cars. When you look into a buyer’s guide of Indian cars you will come across endless boring shapes those seem to have been designed by a Human relations manager. Just have a look at their interiors, it is pretty much as you would expect, hopeless. We are not talking about luxury cars, sports cars, tidy roadsters, super cars or brilliant cars by any means. This is India. Here all the form follows the function. All the cars here do not perform very well, nor are they well made either. If they add buttocks to a hatch and name it an entry level sedan it will sell well, they say. Or they can even shave an SUV and name it a saloon. A box sitting on a suspension with a stupid engine and good efficiency figures is the best car for people over here. Here number of occupants is of more concern than the engine capacity. They do not worry if a car corners like a hippo. They save some money by getting a variant that is not equipped with ABS and Airbags. As a result the Indian roads look something much worse than mind-numbingly boring. There is an advertisement not to mention the firm; the manufacturer claimed the car had cruise control, ABS, traction control and parking sensors. The car was said to be loaded with technology. Some cars in eighties had these technologies. So is it the manufacturers or the customers those can be blamed? Actually both must be blamed. It is not that the engineers do not have brains, they use it differently rather. All cars sold in India are engineered to be sold at a better price, rather than be sold as a better car. Let us put it this way. If you compare a typical car running on Indian roads and a world class car, the Indian car will be half as good but will cost a third or even less. So, why not sell cars here that are almost as good as the best European cars and cost half as much as per that equation. So you get my point. Indian automobile market is brilliant in its own way. What we need to do is scale up things a bit. The reason why other Asian countries are thriving is they sell better cars than Indian companies that are cheaper than European cars. India being a beautiful country deserves much better cars than it has if not better then Europeans. All we now want is cars that are half as well engineered as the Porsches and Beemers, a third as passionate as Ferraris and Lambos, a fifth as well made as Mercedes and Nissans, a tenth as lovable as Mustangs and Astons and priced as good as the Indians. I will be the happiest man if the Indian roads become what they deserve to be.

At last I came up with a new concept car. As you see I am not a good artist. Nowadays a concept car promises biblical performance or on the other end people are talking about battery cars. But this concept is totally based on practicality. A country like India faces problems like Petrol Price hikes, High city Traffic, lack of parking space. On the other hand passengers are keen on safety, Comfort, satisfaction and afford ability and also performance. Many cars score well on one or more aspects but lack on the rest of them too. I think I have got the solution. I am calling this concept ‘hope’. This car has an ordinary front wheel drive layout driven by 1.0 or 1.2 liter aluminum engines. The rear wheels are powered by a 30NM electric motor. Alloys, fuel cut off when braking and deceleration, good aerodynamics and light weight can result in an incredible mileage. The car will just weigh around 650 - 700 kilos. The dimensions will be small as well. The gear box will also be simple, a five speed manual. Brakes will be of disc type. This will feature an independent double wish bone suspension in front and multi link suspension in the rear. Steering will be direct. The car is bound to handle well and ABS is there to save the day. In spite of being nimble and peppy this would still be cheap. This car is a focussed light weight car with no air con and stereos. The interiors can accommodate three adults. The entire money is on the engine and chassis. This kind of car is the only solution to meet the emission norms without sacrificing performance err, by sacrificing things which we do not actually need in a car. This is not exactly a three seater, a fold able seat can be used to seat two persons at the cost of luggage space. A tiny additional luggage space is there though. Many people asked me why I think of such weird concepts. It is clearly practical. Okay! This does not have the passion of a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. But this has got everything an Indian needs. As I have mentioned in the previous post, I thought why there is no affordable coupe. Does an Indian not deserve sporty looking cars? Won’t those type of cars become affordable? Yes, It can. This idea a just the result of my yen for the sporty cars in India. Ratan Tata’s concept has done wonders. But this one I am afraid i gonna stay in my drawing board for ever!