10 Cheapest Cars for 2012

24.05.12

Chevrolet Sonic had come to market in time for KBB to compile sufficient data. The cars are marketed largely for young people and, with most of them, "for anyone with pets or kids, it's tough to cram in," KBB analyst Alec Gutierrez says. They are generally intended "for a young adult or any adult who is not looking for sporty or roomy." The offset is that the cars cost little to buy, operate and maintain. "With fuel prices as big a concern as they are today, and with so much talk about fuel efficient vehicles, we wanted to make sure we captured everything that goes into owning a car for five years," Gutierrez says. "For commuters, these are all fantastic options." KBB surveyed the five-year total cost of ownership. It considered fair purchase price, relying on actual transactions from around the country, and then factor in fuel and other factors. For maintenance, it used assumptions based on the cost of recommended scheduled maintenance. For repairs, it assumed the cost of a third-party

Source: TheStreet.com

The Better Place Model for Electric Vehicles

24.05.12

Battery Cost and Range Anxiety

Last week, when I was in Denmark, I visited the Better Place showroom just outside of Copenhagen. Better Place is a new company founded in 2007 to provide customers with the opportunity to drive clean electric vehicles. Founder Shai Agassi identified that the combination of oil dependence and climate-inducing emissions were fatal flaws in our transportation system, and that the traditional auto companies could not solve these problems.

Better Place is the result of this project. It is an ambitious effort to not just make an electric car — companies like Chevrolet, Nissan, and Renault are already doing that around the world — but to interlink the electric vehicle into a new, emissions free transport and energy system. The concept is as follows: A customer walks into a showroom and purchases a car (today, only Renault Fluences are available, but more are coming). He then will sign a contract with Better Place for however many miles he drives per year, and Better Place will provide him with a battery and all the electricity he needs for that. Unlike cars such as the Chevrolet Volt or the Nissan Leaf, the initial purchase price of the car is less because the cost does not include the battery. The model is much like when you buy a mobile phone; you buy the phone from Apple or Nokia and then sign up for a service contract from AT&T or Verizon.

Source: Consumer Energy Report

Cheapest cars - News

Can Auto Sales Growth Keep Zooming? Wall Street Journal (blog) - Jul 02, 2010 Last month, the plant began production of Nano, the cheapest car in the world. So what's driving this continued appetite for vehicles in India? and more »

India: cheap cars set to gain from fuel price liberalisation Financial Times (blog) - Jun 28, 2010 China PostThe world's cheapest car, also outpaces its nearest petrol counterpart, the Maruti Alto when it comes to fuel efficiency. In a Nano you can drive 23.6km per Tata May Lure Hyundai, Suzuki Buyers as India Frees Fuel PricesTata aims to raise over $1 billion'Tata Nano superdrive' ends in Mumbaiall 213 news articles »

India's car makers see surge in sales AFP - Jul 01, 2010 India's car makers see surge in salesThe rise was driven by passenger vehicle sales, which logged a 63 percent increase to 27811, said the company, which makes the world's cheapest car, and more »

Cheapest Cars Are Still Expensive Malaysia Star (blog) - Jun 29, 2010 They built Malaysia demographic to be so reliance on cars instead of public transports. It is supposed to cost only RM2000 to RM20000 for good used cars if

Early morning at the Bay Bridge: you got exact change? San Francisco Chronicle (blog) - Jul 02, 2010 In the meantime, though, we've been wondering: what is the cheapest way to get into the city these days? Back-of-the-napkin calculations anoint casual and more »