Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/indias-car-demands-eclipse-environmental-concerns Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript With a population of more than 1 billion, India has one of the world's greatest demands for automobiles. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the growing accessibility to low-cost cars that also leads to more congested roads and carbon emissions. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: And now a look at India, where the economy is booming and where growth comes with problems.Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the expanding market for cheap cars and new roads. He reports from New Delhi.FRED DE SAM LAZARO, NewsHour correspondent: Last January, India's Tata motor company unveiled a landmark car that it planned to begin selling by the end of this year. At the equivalent of US$2,500, the Nano is India's Model T, a car for the masses, says automotive journalist Murad Ali Baig.MURAD ALI BAIG, automotive journalist: The German Volkswagen was built with the same philosophy. The French Citroen 2CV was built with the same philosophy.So, therefore, the Nano will have several roles. It will be the car for a large number of low-income families. And it will be an auxiliary car for some of the richer families who would be happy to have a low-cost small car to go nipping around for chores.PRAHALAD KAKAR, film director: What does a car epitomize? Get in, switch on, and you're free to go wherever you want. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Prahalad Kakar, a director of films and commercials, says India's heavily nationalized and regulated economy used to give consumers only two antiquated car models to choose from, and those were in very short supply. They're still in use, mostly as taxis. Kakar says scarcity helped glamorize the car. PRAHALAD KAKAR: The car was this dream. So when you went to an astrologer, and you showed your son's hand to him, and he read the hand, he said, "Oh" — the first two things he'd turn around and say was, "This boy is going to be very successful because he's going to have a car and he's going to have a bungalow." And everybody said, "Ah."