This column was the first to mention that the compressed air powered engine was on its way to Tata Motors, for use in a small car, and now the Tatas have confirmed this in a separate news report. Obviously, it will not be the only engine of choice in the Tata Nano (or any other small motor vehicle being developed by them right now, either), but it will certainly be an option for city taxies and short-run small cargo vehicles. This should, with any luck, convince the armada of environmentalists and greens. And bring the subject of a small vehicle back to the core issue: increased mobility is good for the nation as well as the people. Whether they use public transport as the mainstay or not, is another issue.
Which brings me to the next point?tolls as well as parking charges. Hitting the stratosphere lately, at a highway and market near you, respectively, and let us not even talk about how much it costs now to simply stop and receive family and friends at airports. The unfair bit here is that the charges are the same for the big over-polluting SUVs and high-powered cars as well as for small little battery cars or other environmentally friendly vehicles. The essence of democracy, as well as common sense, tells us that there needs to be some preferential treatment given to lesser polluting vehicles. And to the little common man.
On the other hand, much democratic change is afoot in the land of our erstwhile colonial masters, the British. London is where it all takes a lead, and bringing an SUV or large-engined motor car into central London now sets you back more than 25 pounds, or around Rs 2,000. Parking can set you back an equivalent amount. The Maini Reva (known as the G-Wiz) is, on the other hand, permitted to run around free of any entry tax, toll, or parking fees. There is a lesson here for us in India. The roads need to revert to us.
But, to every good thing, there is a downside. The interiors are not even the usual dull ?ye olde?Maruti, frankly the old Zen had better interiors, and the SX4 is a delight to sink into inside. The interiors on the Swift are simply ghastly. They put my marriage at risk, largely because they also don?t have faux wood inside, and the feel of the air-con controls is kind of like it was in the original Indica. In this day and age, they remind one of the control cabin inside the pump room of a fast and large oil-tanker, simply functional and dull. At any given time, while we enjoy the sheer wind-in-hair feeling that this car gives us, we also as a family wish that we were sitting outside it, if possible. Maybe even in a Getz.
So, my earnest appeal to Tata Motors, for your car with the same engine, if you want to really put one over the Swift, please work on the interiors. Make them sensuous. Make them attractive. And then watch the real battle of the diesel hatchbacks unfold in India. Bar nothing else, these are clean, fast and exciting diesels. They take the burnt rubber off pretty much everything else on our roads, and the suspension on the Suzuki Swift is a tribute to whoever tweaked it. The car handles like a sure-footed cat at all speeds, making high-speed slalom runs through the night time traffic a joy and almost like a modern day ballet.
The author is the founder director of Pacific Shipping and Infornox. These are his personal views
