PETROL shortages and rising prices at the pump are becoming a permanent pain in the pocket and purse for everyone who drives a car.
But are they the beginning of a design and manufacturing revolution that can breathe new life into the Australian automobile industry?
For all their extraordinary achievements, the companies making the world's cars and trucks have been notoriously slow to adapt to change.
To earn profits, they are hostage to the need for huge investment, massive redesign and retooling costs, and long production runs.
Nano
Unveiled in India last January, the first release model is now in the final stages of full-scale production, for sale late this year.
A four-seater all-weather sedan, averaging 100km on five litres of petrol, it has been designed to sell for an Australian equivalent price of about $2500, not including tax, transport and on-road charges.
It has no airconditioning, no electric windows, no power steering, and no airbag. It is just over 3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide.
The body is made of sheet metal and plastic, shiny bright yellow gloss finish in the launch model.
It has a top speed of 104km/h, a 0.6 litre rear engine, and a four-speed manual gearbox. It is test-proved to meet international crash standards and emission laws.
Diesel, gas, electric hybrid and gas options are in development.
It's the brainchild of the extraordinary Ratan Tata, chairman of India's powerful Tata Motors group, who dreamed of producing a new "people's car" that would change the accepted platform on which the worldwide auto industry builds and markets cars.
Tata aims to sell 500,000 cars a year over five years to India's consuming class of 250 million, with overwhelming demand already identified among rural and smaller-city dwellers, where roads are still relatively clear of the nation's six million powered two and three wheelers.
That sounds like a group very similar to Australia's fringe city dwellers and 180 degrees from the world automobile industry's current mainstream direction.
Our television screens nightly advertise the off-road virtues of heavy, ruggedly constructed passenger vehicles and their increasing lists of sophisticated features.
Tata's team of 500 (mostly young) innovators took four years to beat off industry disparagement and doubts, producing the first production model on time and priced to sell at a mission impossible price.
The Nano's significance is that it is the first of a new category of workhorse transport which slashes the capital cost of ownership, making it affordable for millions in the new world.
It is not going to make the current car population obsolete.
But its chosen target market in India has many similarities to potential buyers in Australia - the family car for struggling families, the potentially trendy second car for pragmatic better-off city dwellers.
Tata will ship each vehicle as an almost complete package, supplemented by parts and accessories to be added by its strategically located dealer-assemblers.
That's a recipe that should be attractive to Australia, with our experienced labor force, under-used factories and healthy steel industry.
At the Nano launch, someone asked Tata whether he would be aiming at the Chinese market.
He avoided the question adding, perhaps wryly: "If we could do it, so can others."
However, he has since acknowledged the possibility of franchising later to entrepreneurs in other countries.
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