Pod-like: The $20,000 4 seat, 100 mile Tata electric car

Pod-like: The $20,000 4 seat, 100 mile Tata electric car:

Tata's eMO – The future of emerging markets?

And that’s before tax credits

So, I’m crazy. Pod cars. Autodrive. Why not just add flying capabilities to my vision of the near automotive future?

Unfortunately, I believe that the world is headed towards auto-drive and pod cars whether consumers want them or not. Natural forces, such as fossil fuel supply disruptions and shortages, pollution, congestion, innovation etc. will force the move. Interestingly, however, I don’t believe it would be that hard to sell such a concept to millenials and emerging markets even today.

And the new Tata eMO plug-in electric car demonstrates just how close we really are to the future.

The Tata eMO was featured at the Michelin Challenge Design display at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as a working study to prove the viability of a $20,000 — before tax credits — 4 seat electric car. Utilizing a 18.4 kWh battery, the eMO offers 100 miles of range and a top speed of 65 mph.

Possibly even more interesting, the entire idea was conceptualized, engineered and plans for an assembly plant were all completed in just over a year.

Automotive change has the potential to evolve much faster than it does today and has through the past, especially as new materials and ideas are worked into the process. For instance, couple the eMO with Gordon Murray’s iStream auto production system and the revolutionary reality of a totally re-engineered auto industry is within grasp, even already afoot some might claim.

Couple that with Continental Automotive’s near term plans for mainstream use of autonomous software to create the safest cars ever, as well as Google’s self-driving cars, not to mention the infotainment systems becoming ever more important to automotive success, and the foundation for revolution has already been laid.

Congestion, global warming, declining resources, emerging markets, connectivity, etc. Take your pick, but it’s obvious that the days of the automotive status quo are numbered. And once change is inevitable, especially in today’s technology at the speed of light world, change can happen far faster than most can imagine. Of course, such change often unfolds in ways most can’t imagine either.

More and more these days the car of the car future is being referred to as a mobile hot spot or smart phone. Well, just think about how fast the smart phone ecosystem is evolving. It’s not just the technologies, but entire new business models are being developed that weren’t even conceivable just a few years ago.

And that inevitable change is coming to the auto industry at the speed of light as well.