Revolutionary air car runs on compressed air

[lovuian]

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwlTqaM1oA

BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

The car features a fibreglass body and a revolutionary electrical system and is completely computer-controlled. It is powered by the expansion of compressed air, using no combustion at all, and the exhaust is entirely clean and cool enough for use in the internal air conditioning system.

Tata Motors is known for its interest in innovation and has been selling compressed gas buses since 2000. It is currently working on producing the world's cheapest car, which will be almost 100% plastic and will sell in India for about $2500.

Tata is also expanding into the world market. It acquired Korea's Daweoo in 2004 and is now the top bidder to purchase the originally British Jaguar and Land Rover lines from the United States' troubled Ford Motor Company.

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This will change the world

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. I dunno ... I can handle a tire blowout, but a tank decompression? n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

2. gotta compress that air...guess electricity will do that...

so it does pollute, just indirectly...

sP

[ixion]

3. not if it's green electricity

;)

[madokie]

4. here is a link to their website

http://www.theaircar.com/

pretty interesting how the articulated connecting rod works to make the piston stay at the top for 70 degrees of the cycle. The purpose of is to give the pressure time to build up to max before the piston is pushed down. pretty clever

[lvx35]

5. Great! Compressed air may be the battery of the future, its not just this.

Scientific American has a great article on a "solar master plan" to change our energy dependance where the solar energy is stored as compressed air in caverns underground. Its good, because we've gotten too obsessed on what batteries have to be...But the truth is that to store energy you need to decrease entropy and sustain it, period. Compressed air is an example of a decreasing entropy in a simple way.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan

[Xipe Totec]

6. I own a Hoomdorm - Still have the original packaging

Hopping toy, powered by compressed air.



Of course, it's not big enought to ride.

http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/8410/hoomdorm.html

I'm glad they're making these toys bigger now! :bounce:

[karlrschneider]

7. Almost as cool as the 200 MPG carburetor.

:eyes:

[MindPilot]

9. LOL! If I had a nickel....

The recent increase in gas prices must have something to do with it. I had hoped that story died with the carburetor itself sometime in the mid-eighties, but I've heard it at least three times in the past month.

"Back in 1964 I think it was, my cousin's uncle had a farmhand who bought a new Chevy truck..."

[karlrschneider]

10. If P.T. Barnum hadn't croaked,

he'd still have plenty of rubes to fleece. :eyes:

[IDemo]

8. ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2705745&mesg_id=2705745