This seems like an eco-dream come true, a car the runs on air developed in India. I’ve seen stories on this since 2008, but have yet to see the car hit market. Now the claim is in August 2012.
I don’t think you’ll see IPCC chairman Rajenda Pachauri driving one of these though, since he has been prone to booking posh 5 star hotel suites and won’t even drive the electric car he has. And like an electric car, that energy to charge the air tank with compressed air has to come from someplace, and that someplace if you are connected to the grid is likely fossil fuels, nuclear, or perhaps hydro. Though, with no fuel taxes, it might be a hit with anti-tax crusaders. With a claimed top speed of 60mph and range 185 miles, it should be enough to overcome the range anxiety of electric cars, and there’s no worry about battery fires or having to replace the expensive battery pack in 2-4 years. Whether it will ever be seen in the USA will of course depend on its crash worthiness. And when there is a crash, will it do this?
Story submitted by George Lawson
What is this? ‘Alison Italo Aus’
Will it be the next big thing?
Tata Motors of India thinks so.
What will the Oil Companies do to stop it?
It is an auto engine that runs on air. That’s right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. Take a look.
Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets by August 2012
The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine’s pistons and make the car go.
The Air Car, called the “Mini CAT” could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.
The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical device on the car. Which are not many.
The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.
There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100 KM, that’s about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. It’s mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car, a factor which makes it a perfect choice for city motorists. The car has a top speed of 105 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 185 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 100 rupees and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.
This car can also be filled at home with it’s on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.
Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles. Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.
This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true. We’ll see in August 2012 if it is.
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They will take cues from the post Hotels that charge for air and call it atmosphere. 😉
(But at least they always have great coffee!).
3-seater with driver in the middle? So if you’re a single person you have to climb over a seat to get in position to drive??
Fail.
Somebody is in bad need of a course in thermodynamics. Even with a compressed air engine, you have thermodynamic loss. Of course it is hidden from you. The waste heat in the cycle is the heat that you get rid of when you compress the gas. So, you have a Carnot cycle of efficiency to produce the electric power from coal or whatever, and another to compress the gas. Sounds like a double whammy to me. Better you should burn the fuel at the place where you use the ordered energy to obtain motion.
How many pressurizations cycles before the tanks blow? And the driver is sitting on them.
I guess the car has cooling but no heating? Not good for cold weather.
On rainy days it would beat a bike.
I am reading this wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_energy_storage
(Emphasis mine)
Also, As we all know, you are going to lose some energy during the compression process, I do not believe the figures they give. I guess they are considering taxes and subsides. If gasoline is highly taxed and air is highly subsidized then the figures may be true, but that is cheating.
Its been done before and there was a good reason why it failed then , you simply can’t get an range worth a dam and its HIGH pressure which can go bang in a big way . Then there is the problem of dealing with leaks . Lets how this ine works out, but like so many of these ‘new wonder ‘ ideas its not new at all.
As usual with new technologies, if the product delivers as claimed, it is a winner. There are a long list of vapour releases for every successful program, however (pun intended).
Jeremy, look at the picture. Single front seat, two rear.
There’s two CARBON fibre tanks, so these would be taxed I guess.
I’ve had blog conversations with people who are against Hydrogen in cars, they expect the car to go Boom with leaks, not knowing some of the characteristics of Hydrogen vs. Propane for example. But with this one, how strong are the storage cylinders and what would be the result of a side impact crash with an SUV? No ignition source needed, just a high pressure breach….
The idea of a compressed air car is ancient, I remember reading about it ages ago.
I guess it might work in some circumstances, such as consistently high temperature country like India. I don’t think it would work very well even in moderate climates.
However, for $8k one could imagine a small natural gas fired car that would do a lot better, and I imagine would have much better overall efficiency (not to mention CO2 emissions), due to gas being burned at point of energy consumption, rather than to produce electricity to produce compressed air to produce kinetic energy, with losses on every step.
But if you have a dirt-cheap supply of electricity, then why not…
Heck, check me out someone.
I strongly remember the name TATA (as in Tata Motors?) being a company belonging to / run by Rajendra Pachauri. Tata Institute??
I’m with Urederra on this:
I just don’t believe the figures quoted. I think a bit of “marketing” has been written into it.
And if you’re going to use compressed air, why not use some compressed hydrogen as fuel? If the tank blows up when you’re sitting on it, then it won’t make much difference.
In Canada we pay a road tax built in the price of gasoline at the pump. So since these vehicles do not consume gasoline, the road tax is unpaid. The government will simply apply a road tax on the car at the time of purchase or some other time. They will not allow a vehicle to use the road without paying a tax for that priviledge. Not going to happen in Canada.
Besides, getting stuck in a Canadian blizzard with only a tank full of compressed air for warmth is not a place I would like to be.
It does sound to good to be true.
I guess we will wait and see
Oh, and how will these be taxed??
MILEAGE !!!
RE: Will a damaged compressed air tank “do this?”
Well, some tanks in accidents may more act like the climatic scene from “Jaws.”
Brody: “Smile! you son of a..” BOOM!
I like it, but I like all interesting technologies. This is a car design that fits the Indian market well. It’s my understanding that they generally don’t travel long distances the way Western countries do. It won’t work in the US, at least in its current configuration, but expect California to pass a regulatory edict that 20% of all clean cars on the road MUST be this wonderful little car! We’ll save the planet all by our selves!!!!
That last bit refers to this.
I’m skeptical. If this compressed air engine was efficient then there wouldn’t be a need to make the vehicle an ultra-light. The vehicle could be as substantial as a conventional car. Just scale up the displacent of the engine. Air is “free”, no?
Of course there are lots of ways of storing energy. But I don’t think compressed air would be my first choice. One website quotes the max storage pressure for the Tara Minicat at 4350 psi. I guess if you must carry around cylinders of compressed gas, air at 4350 psi would be safer than natural gas at 3000 psi.
At least it is good to see other means of energy storage considered. We have been told for 40 years that a battery breakthrough is just 10 years away. My current favorite alternative to batteries is hydraulics. Hydraulic motors are compact and can easily be reversed to take advantage of regenerative braking.
But good luck to Tara Motors. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Just what you want, a pressure bomb under your seat. If a road hazard damages a bottle of highly compressed air, the resulting simultaneous release of all the stored energy will not be pleasant. You don’t need a fiery explosion to die in an explosive release of energy. Blunt force trauma is still there. A battery fire happens up to 3 weeks later, unlikely you would be in the car at the time, but the sudden decompression explosion would happen instantly, with you sitting on top of the bottle. They better reinforce the area of the bottles and seriously protect them from road hazards or this thing will be a death trap.
Hey… Maybe if you EVIL DENIER WEATHER MEN will promise to buy one of these when they come out, maybe they will leave you alone!
Back in the late ’50s when I was a kid I had a model airplane engine that ran on a small CO2 cartridge. The rig was too heavy for the model planes of that time but worked fine in a model car I carved out of a block of balsa. It was fun to play with but never really competed with the small diesel model engines of that time, especially on a power to weight ratio.