Thu, 03/13/2008 - 22:31 — Joanna Kujawska
In January the information about the cheapest car in the world - TATA Nano was the hottest news around the world. The car produced in India will cost around 2,500 USD on a local market, which is the lowest price around the entire world. Anyway, Chinese journalists decided to see into its own market and find even cheaper car. A result of theirs exploration is Jiangnan Alto.
These are some technical data of the car. Dimensions: 3,300x1,405x1,410 mm. Wheelbase – 2,175mm. Tyres – 145/70 R12. Curb weight – 645 kg. The car can be equipped with one of two available petrol engine: three - cylinder 0.8L (44hp, 60Nm) and four-cylinder1.1L (52hp, 83 Nm). There is also four - speed manual gear box.
The basic version of the car with 0.8L engine costs 3,260 USD in saloon, but dealer offers discount of 5%, what gives the possibility to reduce the price to 3,097 USD. That is around 600 USD more than TATA Nano, but the car has got radio, air-conditioning and ABS as a standard equipment!!! In case of adding these options, the Indian car’s price appears higher. It is worth to say, that Jiangnan Alto has additional assets (picture). Journalists didn’t give up anyway, and they proved, that identical model being produced in India – Marutii 800 – costs 5,000 USD there, which means around 40% more than its twin model produced in China.
The company Jiangnan (South of the River) Machinery Works was established in 1952 and was known as one of the biggest Chinese gun’s producer. Car production started in 1988 with the limited production of the mini-car Jiangnan JHN 710, later renamed JNJ 7050. From the early 1990s the Suzuki Alto minicar is being produced under license. Through the years various other models were developed, such as Demon, Tongtian Glow, City Spirit and Fengguang. In January 2007 Zotye Auto bought the company and resumed production of the Alto.
Source: managingthedragon.com