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Justin Good
Apprentice
The Race To Build Really Cheap Cars
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Let the price wars for sub-compact cars begin! What could be the new race “to build really cheap cars”, Renault-Nissan announced at a plant-opening on April 4th that it was “planning on building a car for under $3000, 40% less than the least expensive sub-compact car available today.” In addition to that announcement, Tata Motors, an Indian carmaker, “plans to launch a $2500 car next year.”
There's no lack of potential customers: Hundreds of millions of Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, Russians, and others will likely join the middle class in the coming decade, and cars are sure to be at the top of their shopping lists. As a result, the global car market is polarizing: The luxury segment continues to grow, cheap cars boom, and everything else gets squeezed. By 2012, the market for vehicles priced under $10,000 is likely to reach 18 million cars, or a fifth of world auto sales, according to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. That's up from 12 million today.
Whatever the lowest sticker price turns out to be, the discounting trend will hit cars across the board, from minis to SUVs
(treehugger)
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Read More: businessweek Via: treehugger
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