Compressed air tech delay and Singur agitation problems for Tata

The buzz around Tatas’ compressed air car seems to be dying down, at least for the moment.

The grapevine was that Tata Motors would launch its compressed air car by 2008-end. However, Tata officials have clarified that the car maker is still working on compressed air-powered car technology, and it would take a while before it is launched.

There goes the dreams of transportation that is even cheaper than electric cars.

The Tatas have said that the technology of air powered cars is still in development stage. It may be recalled that the car maker had in the first part of year 2007 inked a deal with French major MDI to supply compressed air technology for engines in India.  You can read our original story on compressed air car tech and Tata’s interest here.

Meanwhile, as troubled times continue, the Tatas are said to be pushing the launch date for the Tata Nano as well. Nothing official on that yet – quite likely they might launch the car from Pantnagar and keep their word. Actual steady full scale production is a different matter, though.

The people’s car was expected to be rolled out this October 2008. However, the socio-political situation at the project site in Singur has been going from bad to worse ever since Tata had announced the launch date. Newspapers have reported that the attendance of contractual labour at the site had been dipping too badly forcing Tata do a rethink on the launch date.

A couple of days back, Tata pulled out all its workers from the Singur plant where some workers were beaten up and threatened by agitating Trinamool Congress activists and farmers. There is a good chance that the agitation would continue indefinitely, and Tata may big goodbye to SIngur.

Even though the car maker sees trouble in Singur and a delay in its air technology plans, it has decided not to up prices of its existing product line. Instead the car maker will be cuting costs to maintain and boost margins this fiscal. It is common knowledge that the car maker is facing cost pressure. However, the top management believes that it was prudent to cut down costs instead of price hikes.

The hopes are however running high with the festival season just a couple of months away when it is expected that vehicle demand would improve.