The Next Big Thing in Cars

worried_jim

What is this?



Will it be the next big thing? Tata Motors thinks so.


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 2011


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 it's simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this Car.

This Air Car almost sound to good to be true. We'll see in August.

Strider590

All cars run on air......

14.7 units of air to every unit of fuel, to be exact.
You can't ignite air without an accelerant, which is why we need fuel.

But what they seem to be claiming is the use of compressed air, without an ignition. Personally I think it's a load of non-sense, you'd need extreme quantities of compressed air to achieve these claims and I for one wouldn't want to be sat on top of a giant compressed air cylinder. They've come up with a flawed "theory" and they going to drag in dumb investors, then have off with the money.

pendulum

If their claims are true then it sounds like a winner. We'll see.

iolanthe07

Some WW2 torpedoes were powered by compressed air; it's not a new idea. The problem is the huge tank you would need to get any decent range out of a car powered by it. I think this is a non-starter, tbh.

Lum

Tata are a somewhat too big to be stealing a load of venture capital money and then disappearing.

Sounds like this works because they have made the car seriously light weight, so it's probably not very safe in a crash. Fine for India where they don't worry about such things as much (and where a huge proportion of the population use motorbikes/mopeds anyway) but it probably wont comply with EU safety regulations and once made to do so, will probably be too heavy to function. Probably wont work in America either due to similar safety regs and the need to carry Americans around in it

I still object to things like this being called "zero emissions" though. Where do they think the energy required to compress the air comes from?

That said, I'd love to see the government try to apply road fuel duty to air, and unlike other forums of fuel, compressors are easily available to normal people.


One other issue, they claim "double the mileage of the most advanced electric car" then state a range of 185 miles. Someone hasn't kept up with modern electric cars, there are a few around now that can do 300 miles.

Edit: Got a link to the original article?

Strider590

^^ Im also thinking that compressed air is likely to be less useful in colder climates, for obvious reasons.

Ebe_Scrooge

Lum wrote: »

I still object to things like this being called "zero emissions" though. Where do they think the energy required to compress the air comes from?

Hear Hear !!! It makes my blood boil when I hear journalists sing the praises of "zero emission" electric cars.

That aside, it's an interesting concept. I suppose it's essentially the same theory as a steam engine, in that the steam or air powers the cylinders. In this example the compressed air is stored, rather than being generated on-board. The bottom line with ANY form of power - coal, gas, oil, diesel, petrol, electricity, whatever - is how efficiently you can convert the chemical energy into kinetic energy. If this "air-powered" method can convert energy more efficiently than a standard petrol engine, then maybe .....

The difficulty is in calculating the efficiency. An ordinary internal combustion engine burns petrol to turn the engine. With this car, you burn coal to produce steam ( at the power station ), use steam to drive generators, these produce electricity, this is used to drive a compressor, this compresses air, the air then powers cylinders. Each time the energy is converted from one form to another you will incur a loss ( due to friction, inefficiencies, etc. ) so overall I would guess it's rather less efficient than an ordinary engine. I'm no scientist, but that's my take on it.

Interesting concept, though, and I'll be interested to see how it develops.

Gloomendoom

It's nice to see something new for a change...

Lum

The "zero emissions" thing does have one small argument in it's favour. It depends on what kind of emissions you care about.

If you believe in the whole CO2 thing then these are in no way zero emissions, though in theory if electricity generation could move to renewables/nuclear it could be close to zero emissions in the future.

If you are more concerned about smog, which is likely to be an issue in the big Indian cities that are full of horrible little 2 stroke mopeds, then things like this really are an improvement.


Basically I can see this car being viable in India, and it will probably be a big improvement in quality of life for the people who can afford it, but not so useful in the west, at least not in it's current form.

almillar

Not a new idea at all. There was a dude driving round Paris I think 10 years ago - that MDI name sounds familiar, in a really lightweight 'car' that had an air compressor for an engine, and didn't need a tank to refill either - the engine was basically a glorified car tyre pump! Was a bit noisy obviously and slow, but a good idea for commuting. If this can be done what's the point in carrying around a tank of air (that you'll be charged to fill!)?

Lum

So the guy was driving around with an air compressor which was powered by electricity?

In other words he was driving around in an electric car with an inefficient motor and would suffer from all the problems that conventional electric cars have, such as long recharge times.

The point of the air tank is that you can fill it in a couple of minutes rather than hours like with electric.