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| Indian
cars are optimised for fuel effeciency, a big issue with motorists. |
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It’s
been a while since I extensively drove a Peugeot. Ever since the French
company pulled the plug on India at the end of 1997, Peugeots aren’t
sold here anymore, which is why I haven’t got around to driving them.
I realised what I was missing after zipping across the Moroccan landscape
last month in the all-new 307.
Peugeot walks the ride and handling tightrope better than any other car-maker
and the 307 is proof of that. The exceptional chassis control and suspension
systems Peugeots are famed for is a deep-rooted expertise that has been
developed over the better part of a century on the cobbled streets and
poor road surfaces of rural France.
In fact, the
rugged road conditions have been the biggest influence on the chassis and
suspension systems of French cars, spawning innovative designs. The legendary
Citroen 2CV (which nearly came to India) is a good example with its simple
but effective suspension which mechanically links the front and rear wheels
of the car to keep them level.
Global manufacturers talk about producing global cars but the truth is that
the local characteristics of a nation are largely responsible for giving
the personality to a car it produces. German cars are known for their solidity,
taut-ride and high-speed stability because of the speed-limitless environment
of the autobahns they run on. Conversely, American cars are softly sprung
because their owners drive on roads that are smooth, don’t have too
many curves, and rarely go above 130kph. Fiat has earned the reputation
of making terrific small cars because that’s what Italians traditionally
wanted and could afford. The Japanese too are masters of pocket-sized cars
as they are best suited to a land where there’s no space to walk your
dog, leave alone park a car. The only difference is that on the well-manicured
roads of Japan, robustness is not a priority, which is why Japanese cars
have typically not had a reputation for the same.
One would expect that with the worst roads in the world, we would spawn
some top-level chassis and suspension engineers. But developing the ride
and handling of a car is very much a seat-of-the-pants thing, which most
of the R&D heads in Indian companies don’t have simply because
they aren’t ‘car guys’ and hardly drive themselves. Besides,
most Indian car owners don’t really care about the dynamic properties
of a car as long as it provides decent ride comfort through those potholes.
So what are Indian cars optimised for? I would say fuel efficiency purely
because this is a prickly issue for the majority of Indian car owners, irrespective
of what they own. Car owners are more likely to forgive a car that has woozy
handling or allows the odd bump to filter through, but will want their money
back if it drinks more fuel than they think it should.
Decent fuel efficiency has been of paramount importance and performance
has always been compromised to achieve it. Any global model sold in India
will be more fuel efficient than the one sold in other markets. In fact,
Ford has recently recalibrated the engine management system of its Ikon
in response to customers grumbling about the abysmal fuel efficiency it
was giving. This tweak has blunted the Ikon’s throttle response but
it’s a small price to pay for the respectable fuel economy it has gained.
Tata Engineering is playing the same card with its gas-guzzling petrol Indica
and has also remapped its ECU. Honda’s City VTEC suffers from a low-speed
driveability problem, which can be rectified by recalibrating the ECU but
as yet the company is hesitant to do so as it could affect the all-important
fuel economy.
What makes the quest for good fuel economy particularly difficult is the
low octane fuel which cars adapted to the Indian market have to run on.
Compression ratios have to be lowered or the ignition timing retarded to
suit the 87 octane fuel. This results in an efficiency drop of 10-15 per
cent. But if you take this handicap into account and then average out the
fuel consumption of the entire Indian model range, it could be the most
fuel-efficient in the world.
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July 2001 