Electric cars have not one, but two monkeys on their back.
Range anxiety, and price. Whether you believe each is truly a problem will depend on your own circumstances, but there’s no doubting that consumers used to inexpensive cars and hundreds of miles on a fill may be a little wary of the modern breed of EVs.
Price in particular is a sticking point. When a Nissan Versa costs $11,000 and a similarly-sized Nissan Leaf nearly three times that pre-incentives, you have to say that lower prices would increase the attraction.
That’s where the Tata group comes in. Owners of Tata Motors, makers of the world’s cheapest new car, the Nano, Tata is developing an electric car that it aims to sell below $20,000.
It won’t be a tiny electric quadricycle like the $10,000 Renault Twizy either–Tata and its development partner Dassault Systems is aiming for a small-footprint car that can comfortably seat four adults.
That implies a production car at least the size of Tata Motors’ own Indica EV–a car already under development–rather than the nanoscopic Nano.
According to Firstpost, the project is a truly global affair, with collaboration between over 300 Tata Technologies engineers from India, the U.S, Europe and more.
Some are concerned that with the Indica EV still not in series production, Tata may not be able to handle the development of a second EV, but Tata’s new high-tech approach and wide research base could allow them to research and develop a genuinely global, inexpensive electric car.
Should that happen, then concerned buyers would have one fewer reason to dismiss the the technology.
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