Managing Director of Tata Motors Commits "Suicide"

Hello? Didn't the police say there was no foul play? Case closed for me. Next people will be saying Gary Webb and Michael Hastings were murdered, insane nutjobs!

reply to post by IkNOwSTuff


It's true that most Americans won't drive one.

As an Aussie, you know how well a big, powerful, rear drive sedan that made Crown Vic's look like horse drawn carts sold, don't you?

Not very well, when it's not US made.

I'm talking about the Pontiac gto, for those at home.

Wouldn't a hotel like that have cameras everywhere like in the hallways or outside? Most big hotels tend to have such security protocols in place. Wonder if this one did. A skilled assassin can make anything look like an "accident" or "suicide".

reply to post by Lostmymarbles

You guys just don't get it, do you.

The Tata nano is nothing new at all except for its extremely low cost. Have none of you every heard of Smart cars? They have been around for at least 10 years and are another micro car that has limited appeal. They are very popular in placed like Paris but are rarely seen outside Europes cities.


To put it plainly, micro cars do not sell because they are tiny and cannot carry much. Claiming that Tata's Nano is a world changing concept is just stupid, because its just not. Its cheap yes, but safe and practical no. Its less practical and is about as mechanically advanced than the original mini which was the game changer 60 years ago.


There are loads of other manufacturers from the Asia region that do cheap cars. We have multiple brands here in australia like great wall, chery, tata, mahindra, foton, ssangyong, proton, mg, geely that offer cars at ridiculously low prices. Thing is nobody buys them even though some of those brands like mg, ssangyong and foton actually offer credible quality and safety.

There is no motive for murder here because Tata doesn't have anything to threaten anyone with. End of story.

reply to post by markosity1973


I did not mean his vehicles in particular or that they don't exist already outside the US but can what you are talking about be bought in the US? Can I go to a dealership and buy one of these cars that run on air? That run on electricity and can do 100+ mph? Has any of these cars your talking about made it to the main market for consumers such as you or myself to just go down the street to the dealerships to get?

I think not, at least not any of them are anywhere near where I am. His cars though would have broken through to the American marketplace which would cause others to have to compete against it. When you have competition you create better and better things to outdo your competition. But if they never reach the market then they never have a chance to expand or be improved upon. That is what I was trying to get across. The ideas and concepts finally making it to the mass market where one can go down the street to purchase them and not have to travel to another country or another state.

reply to post by Lostmymarbles

Oh dear

Clearly you did not read this paragraph of my last reply;

There are loads of other manufacturers from the Asia region that do cheap cars. We have multiple brands here in australia like great wall, chery, tata, mahindra, foton, ssangyong, proton, mg, geely that offer cars at ridiculously low prices. Thing is nobody buys them even though some of those brands like mg, ssangyong and foton actually offer credible quality and safety.

The Australian auto market, apart from being smaller due to a smaller population than the USA is very similar in it's tastes in that we share a love affair for larger cars that is now starting to wane thanks to continuing high fuel prices.

One can if they wish buy a Chery J1 for $9990 drive away - the cheapest new car price ever in Australia. *edit* It's also a small engined reasonably fuel efficient hatchback, so is similar in idea to the Nano in that it is small and it is cheap.*

There are loads of other cheap new cars that range from small hatches to people movers to utes and everything in between from all the abovementioned brands too. Good luck spotting most of them on the road though.

You are basing your assumption on Tata being a game changer on the fact that you believe that every American is going to rush to a Tata showroom and buy every new car in sight. The reality will be very different though, I guarantee it.

The Tata Airpod will not be a big seller either - it will be even smaller than the Nano so therefore will not offer any practicality. It will be impossible to build a decent family car on this concept, which would sell extremely well, because the car needs to be small and light for it to work. Imagine trying to fit an American family in an Airpod and drive it from LA to Vegas. It simply aint going to happen and therefore it will not leave the showroom floor in big numbers.

This is why the big names in auto manufacturing have ignored these concepts - they know what people want. And what people want is a car that can carry at least 4 people and their luggage over long distances.

Hybrids work because they can do this thanks to the petrol / diesel engine backup. They are currently the most excellent eco friendly car and nobody is laughing at them because they have proved themselves. An air powered car can't and won't work because like an electric car, it needs to be charged and even worse for the air powered car, it needs to be small and light to have a proper chance of working.

The future of non fossil fuel powered cars lays in a few possibilities ; Tesla's wireless method of electricity transmission for electric cars, Hydrogen fuel cells, cold fusion when it's finally mastered etc. All of these propulsion methods have the ability to be scaled to any car size and therefore will be able to be used in cars we would actually like to buy and own.

reply to post by babybunnies


He was off'ed.

But who stands to gain from this?

How did he p--- off?

reply to post by Lostmymarbles


Exactly.

Reprogram a hotel keycard and hack the surveillance cameras.

reply to post by markosity1973


Great answer.

Anyone looking to buy a car is looking for practicality as everyday transport.

Nano is a flawed concept. India already has several small cars to choose from, so Nano is not special.

Nano is not even cheap anymore, as prices have risen. Now they want to sell on the "fun factor" which the platform was not designed for.

Tata Motors is suffering because it did not invest in basic R&D enough when it was making good profits. Other companies have done better.

Tata vogue's are nice

reply to post by babybunnies


Just out of interest, what happened to the cars / buses that were running on Hydrogen and said to be 'Trial runs', seeing how all their exhaust would be is water ?????? Have they also been ditched.

reply to post by steaming


Hydrogen would be a great fuel if they could overcome a few technical problems;

In internal combustion engines the hydrogen causes 'embrittlement' i.e. the metal inside your engine becomes weak and brittle and cracks. So work is needed on finding commercially viable alloys that overcome have this issue if one wishes to convert a, regular gasoline engine.This is where the hydrogen fuel cell cars come in, they convert it to electricity for electric motors.

Hydrogen is very difficult to store safely in a vehicle. If you crash, there is the danger of the tank or lines leaking and you've got a hydrogen bomb on your hands.

Hydrogen is very difficult to produce currently. it might be the most common element in the universe, but here on earth most of it suits very comfortably bonded with oxygen as water. It takes a fair amount of energy to break that bond.

Its not to say these issues can't be overcome with human ingenuity, its just that we haven't done it yet in a way that would work commercially.

reply to post by markosity1973

An explosion cannot occur in a tank or any contained location that contains only hydrogen. An
oxidizer, such as oxygen must be present in a concentration of at least 10% pure oxygen or 41%
air. Hydrogen can be explosive at concentrations of 18.3-59% and although the range is wide, it is
important to remember that gasoline can present a more dangerous potential than hydrogen
since the potential for explosion occurs with gasoline at much lower concentrations, 1.1-3.3%.
Furthermore, there is very little likelihood that hydrogen will explode in open air, due to its
tendency to rise quickly. This is the opposite of what we find for heavier gases such as propane or
gasoline fumes, which hover near the ground, creating a greater danger for explosion.

reply to post by TKDRL


I have two words for you; Hindenburg disaster

reply to post by markosity1973


Are you seriously trying to compare the skin and skeleton of a blimp, to a hydrogen tank? Apples and oranges friend.





Here is a sequence taken of a hydrogen tank fire vs a gasoline tank fire. Interesting results if you ask me.

reply to post by markosity1973


You need to ditch the piston driven internal combustion engine. That is the solution.

There are other types of engines that can burn hydrogen efficiently. One design is etched into my mind for years now, but I have not seen this design into practical shape by anybody.

The best solution for automobile is a gaseous fuel that is burned in a turbine and converted to electricity. Electricity is subsequently used to turn wheels using hub motors. This is the best and most fuel efficient solution.

If they could put a heater in this sounds like it would work better in a UK market. Our petrol and insurance costs mean a cheap car would be good, and we're used to small cars.

reply to post by WilsonWilson


You've already had Tata cars in the UK bite most people don't realize it because it wasn't under the Tata name plate.

The ill fated cityrover that went down with the test of the river ship was actually just a fully imported rebadged Tata Indica.

reply to post by TKDRL


I'm aware of that test you showed pics of. Thanks for sharing them though btw.

It will be interesting to see whether the same results in the real world or if we end up with space shuttle challenger type explosions in a collision situation. I guess it all comes down to where the storage tank is located in the vehicle.

reply to post by markosity1973


Yeah, it probably depends on a lot, there really is no such thing as perfectly safe, especially when you are surrounded by moron drivers lol. I mean, you could be in the safest car ever, runs on water, and have some rich moron kid t-bone you with a porsche at 140 MPH and you are screwed no matter what eh?