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.
I want one if only as a “toy” car.
Tata Motors is a large industrial combine, they own Jaguar and Land Rover now as well.
I expect this thing will work, within certain bounds – Tata can afford real engineers, so this won’t be a Michael Mann production. That said, as we’ve seen with the Leaf, the marketing guys get a bit ahead of the technology so in the real world you can cut their numbers by 40%.
My guess on its performance envelope: you’ll get the 60mph top speed OR the 185mile range if operated lightly loaded, and by the time you’re into the last third of usable pressure your top speed will be more in the 35-40mph range.
Just guesswork.
“…by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.”
Strictly speaking this isn’t true. Ok, By no gases I assume that they mean no refrigerant. As far as a loss of power is concerned on a conventional internal combustion car the engine utilizes some energy to expell exhaust gases. That’s why on performance cars efforts are made to minimize exhaust flow restrictions within certain parameters. If this vehicle partially redirects exhaust flow for air conditioning purposes I believe that it would require some amount of energy by the motor at the cost of some motive efficiency albeit perhaps very neglible. This has to add some back pressure.
Anyway there’s never a free lunch.
Twenty years ago I worked at a utility company that started an internal “green” initiative. While doing research in ways to “go green” I found an article that discussed the pros and cons of electric cars. While most people thought they were a great way to reduce pollution, the article pointed out that these cars merely shifted the location of the pollution. Kind of like wealth redistribution, it’s just another way to make certain groups of people feel better about themselves.
“. . . a car [that] runs on air developed in India.”
Will air developed in other places work just as well in this car, or do they have some special proprietary air?
Besides, If it does not produce CO2, then is not good for the environment, since CO2 is plants food and the more they have, the faster they grow.
Lucy Skywalker says:
January 31, 2012 at 8:05 am
“I strongly remember the name TATA (as in Tata Motors?) being a company belonging to / run by Rajendra Pachauri. Tata Institute??”
No; Tata is a huge Indian conglomerate; like Siemens in Germany or GE in the US. They did sponsor an institute where Pachauri was/is the director, though.
Two more remarks:
I expect the tanks can be made reasonably safe, but at 4350psi if one of those tanks is damaged you’ll find the car and its occupants in very small bits scattered over a quarter-mile radius.
Even if the car itself works, it is still functionally an ‘electric’ vehicle, with lots of lossy spots in they cycle.
It beats a water buffalo but then the water buffalo will not explode in a collision.
But like the water buffalo it has to rest for a recharge. As far as the recharge time is concerned what else have you got to do that is more important? If you are a global warming enthusiast probably nothing is more important.
OK, I want to see that motor in a motorcycle powered by hydrogen peroxide or hydrazine.
That would be a good use, but why not use a turbine? I bet a turbine engine with the same horse power would be half the weight and 1/3 the size.
It’s the same device that’s been pushed by the “developers” for a number of years, continuously milking whatever R&D funds they can get.
I looked at the technology so long ago that I’ve forgotten where I put my copious notes on why such a thing is nothing more than a very expensive toy. Compressed-air drive is useful in a very limited number of applications; which do not include basic transport for a family.
What struck me is that the useless gadgetry of wireless controls of electrical consumers. Adding not only uselessly to the electronic smog, ignoring cheap and simple 1-wire vehicle communications buses that can be deployed much more cheaply (e.g. LINbus). After all, the wirelessly-controlled electrical consumers are powered from somewhere (a battery) and a thin data wire can be run alongside the power and return lines. You can’t use a composite body as an electrical conductor, nor should one use the aluminium of a chassis.
The gratuitous complexity of wireless vs simple and secure wired control gives an insight into the mentality of the designers.
Here’s part of an analysis that I’ve been doing on re-wiring a conventional vehicle to minimise cabling and to maximise utility: http://golf2lin.wordpress.com/bus-architecture/decentral-electrics/
This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true.
Tata Motors has trotted out the ‘to be in full manufacture’ within a year more then once on this thing.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/preview-concept/4251491
Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range
According to Wikipedia compressed air has only abour one tenth to one twentieth the volumetric energy storage of a lithium ion battery. We have an idea of the limitations of the electric car eg Leaf. I would assume that battery cars tend to gross out while air cars would tend to cube out. In any case, I suspect the 185 miles between refills might be just a teenie bit optimistic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
Make it run on CO2 and you have a winner! See, you pull the extra CO2 from the atmosphere and then use it to power your car. Al Gore can certify it for carbon offsets.
And with Maxwell’s Daemon doing all the compressing, you’re suddenly in possession of infinite energy, yeah?
If it works, why wouldn’t it challenge the golf cart market in Fl or the general purpose ATV for rural users?
Some environmentalists outside India are worried that Patel Tata will introduce automobiles widely to Indians who now own cars at the rate of 7 per 1000 families. He sees a market niche for a car that replaces the ubiquitous motorbike at nearly the same price. I wonder if that is why he has met resistance to the Tata Nano, and his goal of producing them by the millions for India, and South America.
Bet the car also has a problem with traveling uphill, especially as the air pressure in the tank drops. Maybe it would work relatively well on flat ground, but in hilly//mountainous areas it probably is a nightmare. Top speed of 60mph on flat ground at max tank pressure pretty much tells you how much power it has.
It does take energy to compress the air and once you compress the air, heat is generated. I don’t know the amount of heat generated to compress air to 3,000 PSI, but that heat is a reduction of efficiency in the system.
Also an accident will render the tanks into one impressive bomb. I’ve known of cases of scuba shops receiving major damaged due to a tank rupture. The car must use a larger tank, so bigger tanks result in bigger boom.
How are we to get hold of “air developed in India” and how much will it cost?
A friend of mine once had a car that ran on compressed natural gas and gasoline. I looked under the hood and saw a small pressure gauge on the NG line that went up to 5,000 psi! The NG tank was in the trunk just behind the rear seat. So high pressure tanks have been used for transportation in the US and I do not remember any issues with exploding tanks.
One thing, though. Pressure that high will cut you like a knife. My first full time job was in a plant that had high pressure cylinders of nitrogen. I was messing around with one of them one day and an old hand read me the riot act, telling me how dangerous it was. Even at 1,000 psi, the nitrogen could have punched a hole through my hand. I never forgot it. (Good outcome to the story, eh?) That danger will exist with the air in this car.
“the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero.” How many cars on the road before we return to Global Cooling and a new Man-made ice age? Specialty vehicles like this (including all electric and CNG) can work in a controlled fleet situation, limited mileage and return to a common station.
Years ago I witnessed a compressed 02 tank dropped from a Welding supply truck, the thing launched like a rocket as it hit on the valve end, found it a mile away, What happens in an accident? TaTa?
What about liquid air? That is, LN2. There are a number of issues, positive and negative. Safety is improved since pressure in the dewar would rapidly dissipate with a rupture, the liquid would boil off and not explode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen_vehicle
Gravity will compress the air for free and provide heat for the car.
I read this recently somewhere.