Kaar: the peoples' car?

Where do I start?

IBA (forgot what it meant, but it's one of the top business schools of the country) is organizing an entrepreneurial competition by the name of INVENT.

In short, the competition is about coming up with an idea, forming a team, and a business/entrepreneurial proposal sort of thing regarding that idea. So, with the motto I once had 'har cheez main taang arao' (stick your leg into everything), I (and Malik Basharat) decided to take part. All good, but what about the idea?

hmm...hmm...

Damn Man, its Kaar!

Kaar, marketable? It is something we (I guess all the team) have our doubts on. (I think I have written on that earlier). But I was totally shocked (in a good way) that many of the people here quite liked the idea.

In fact, on the first day of the workshop on Saturday, Kaar took the event by storm (well, almost). Pity I wasn't there to witness what actually had happened as I was away on welding duties for the Kaar, but from what I learnt, Kaar invoked controversy...lots of it.

...which was good, as it brought it to the limelight. One of the guys, who was supposed to join the marketing and finance team for Kaar, raised the question whether something like this, as opposed to wavering and meek ideas of empowering women or a cookie store, would be too costly for even INVENT (they had been handing out free teas and lunches for the last two days) to encapsulate. Apparently it wasn't. On Malik Basharat's interjection, one of the main organizers Azhar Rizvi promised he would buy the first commercial Kaar!

Anyway, from the response we got at the event, the bottom-line is that Kaar is marketable, even if the application of the start-stop strategy is too cumbersome for consumers to be offered.

The catch?

A two-seater (the envisaged commercial version) at less than one-third of the cost of the cheapest available car today, at least 3-4 times as efficient and twice as compact (half as big) as the common car today.

Utility of the two-seater?

A keen observation (to be backed up by a proper survey) that almost half our (4-5 seater) gas guzzling vehicles have just one person as the passenger.

Moreover, this sleek and compact green car would be more maneuverable in the slender streets of the country (of Urban areas to begin with).

And the thing that really makes it seems worthwhile is the utility, or mobility, it offers to those hardest hit by traffic congestion in the form of ubiquitous traffic jams and the lack of parking spaces in civic centers.

The Market?

Young executives and students, who drive alone.

Senior Executive, who have multiple mechanical steeds, one for family use and Kaar for commuting.

The working middle class, who...well need the mobility of a motorbike and the luxury of a car.

Young people, who see Kaar as a fashion statement :-)

Women...or girls to be more apt, who always wanted to ride the Scooty the India girls do...(the Jeremy-Clarkson-shocked-and-speechless-expression). Yeah this, as put by one of the marketing people on 'our' team put, comes in 99 colors!

People conscious of reducing their carbon-footprint.

And well, everyone else!

The Marketing?

If we had worked this out, we wouldn't have been engineers...right? And those marketing people in our team are idiots!

But they did the Elevator Pitch all fine...

The Elevator Pitch?

Ok, the idea supposedly comes from squeezing into an elevator with an otherwise busy CEO and prospective investor, and giving him a 30-60 second presentation while the elevator reaches his destination.

So, the NBS girl (one of the marketing people as I call) gave the Elevator Pitch on Saturday about the idea (that being Kaar in case you have forgotten). It was one of the 6 best (among 23) idea/elevator pitches to be given at the workshop!

In short, she took off (I THINK she took off from there) with our traffic problems, fuel consumption issues (The stupid girl drives a 1.6L car alone to college everyday) and the cost of smaller and 'cheaper' cars. She mentioned maneuverability, the idea of going green and some other things (I wouldn't be an engineering student had I remembered all that shit). She recognized the market as well (I THINK). She ended up asking everyone to buy a Kaar (Ok, she didn't).

Anyway, by the end of the day, 3 persons had promised us that they would buy Kaar!

On Sunday (today) we, the 3 marketing idiots didn't turn up, made the executive summary for the project. Again it was among the best 6 at the event!

We let ourselves down in the presentation...and I am running out of time now...we would pull up our socks and kick some marketing ass in one month's time when the competition really starts.