It’s quite evident that there’s recently been a great shift in the world’s automakers interest towards producing cheaper friendlier cars. The cars that are being promoted today are ones that are easy on your bank accounts and less stressful on our planet. Of course, on the surface, we salute this this kind of initiative.
It was only a couple days ago that Tata Motors (owners of Jaguar and Land Rover) presented their highly anticipated Tata Nano in India, also known as The People’s Car. It promises to be the cheapest car on the market, at a starting dealership price of 100,000 Indian Rupis which is roughly $2,000 USD. This smart little toy has 4 doors, 4 seats, 2 cilinders, a 624cc motor, the ability to do 50 miles to the galon, and a motor that can rage up to an impressive 65miles/hour. The car officially goes on sale in the next couple of weeks.
The other piece of news that’s been giving the automotive world loads to talk about in these last couple days is the imminent launch of IKEA’s LEKO car. Yes, you read this right… it’s a car produced by IKEA! We are still uncertain whether or not this is fo’ realz or if its a viral marketing campaign, which is why we invite you to dive into the information that’s currently out there.
After visiting the intriguing french website roulez-leko.com, one will be greeted with a video starring the acclaimed automotive designer Christophe Grozs. In it, he talks about the virtues of this new car, which appears in the background covered with a white sheet with IKEA’s logo and a slogan that reads: Yes, the car according to IKEA. There is also a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the hyped launch… and note that it’s very very soon.
Yet, there are a number of reasons why one would suspect this to be a hoax. First of all, the WWF logo is in the bottom right corner.. I know, wtf? Second, the apparent launch date is April 1st, which is something like April Fool’s Day for the French. And third, pure logic… Why on earth would IKEA even consider becoming an auto-maker? Yes, their products are very pretty and accessible, but anyone that has ever owned a piece of IKEA furniture knows that it only takes one very heated night, and/or a couple weeks of good use, for all of its parts to loosen up and and all those screws and bolts to fall off.
The question then becomes: Do you want to be driving an IKEA produced car? I certainly don’t. The idea kinda scares me.
(Tata Nano via dezeen >>> LEKO via desginboom / cnet news)
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