John Neff
Car Buying, India, Tata

click above to view more images of the Tata Nano

Anticipation for the Tata Nano in India is so high that the country's used car market is taking a dive ahead of the car's arrival later this year. Autocar is reporting that sales for India's current most popular and cheapest car, a used Maruti 800, have already fallen 30 percent, and sales for a brand new Maruti 800 were down 20 percent last month. The Maruti is actually a rebadged version of the older Suzuki Altos. At nearly 200,000 rupees, it's about twice as much to buy new as the $2,500 Tata Nano will be, despite being a smaller car. Indian car buyers apparently are not dumb. Why buy a new or used car today when you can wait until the end of the year and get a new Tata Nano for much less? The used car market in India could rebound a bit, however, after the Nano debuts. All those people waiting to buy one now might not end up liking the world's cheapest car after they get a chance to drive one.

[Source: Autocar via Winding Road]

Gallery: Tata Nano

Source: Tata Nano tanking used car market in India

Lascelles Linton
Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, Natural Gas

BRA GmbH, PGO Automobiles and gasmobil partnered to create PGO Cévennes Turbo-CNG roadster, a car they will introduce at the International Auto Salon in Geneva (March 6 to 16). They are taking pre-orders now and may take the car into production as a series depending on demand. Interested? The projected price for this car is €48,000 (US$70,000).

The roadster has a top speed of 210 kph (130 mph) and does 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.5 seconds. It has a 4-cylinder, 1.6-liter turbocharged engine, 6-speed manual transmission and a maximum output of 110 kW (150 hp) at 5,600 rpm, with maximum torque of 210 Nm (155 lb-ft) at 2,300 rpm. As for fuel economy, it gets 6.7 liters gasoline equivalent/100 km, or 35 miles per US gallon and has a range of 450 kilometers (280 miles).

But who cares about fuel economy with a beauty like that, huh? There is a video below about what looks to be the classic version of the PGO Cévennes. I can't tell: The entire thing is in French. Still worth a watch for any roadster fan.

[Source: Treehugger, Green Car Congress, YouTube]

Source: Video: PGO Cévennes Turbo-compressed natural gas roadster

Sebastian Blanco
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Q & A, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Chicago Auto Show

I came across the Bridgestone booth at the Chicago Auto Show while they were rehearsing for an upcoming press conference. Ex-NFL player Eddie George was running through the script and Bridgestone was showing off its Super Bowl commercials, but I was more interested in the booth's "One Team, One Planet" display. I got a chance to speak about the environmental efforts that Bridgestone and Firestone have done and are doing with Dan MacDonald, Bridgestone's director of media relations, and Michael Martini, president of North American Consumer O.E. for both Firestone and Bridgestone.

The short version of the tale is that the tire manufacturer is working on the reduce, reuse, recycle method. Whether it's retreading a tire (a process that uses 68 percent less oil compared to making a new tire - 7 gallons vs. 22 gallons) or giving the State of Tennessee ten thousand acres to be set aside as a nature reserve, there's a lot more going green here than low-rolling resistance tires. Don't worry, we talk about that, too. Listen in here (8 MB, 17 min).

You can see high-resolution images of all the panels in the "One Team, One Planet" in the gallery below.

Gallery: Chicago 2008: Bridgestone's green planet

Source: Chicago 2008: Bridgestone talks about "One Team, One Planet"