Air-Car Is Ready for Launch

The Indian car giant Tata Motors is ready to go for mass production of world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle designed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre and developed by Moteur Developpment International, his foundation.

With its launch, India will not get a cost effective car but it will also free air pollution as well as will be able to solve the fuel problem.

The technology behind the air-car is not new and it had been around for years. It uses compressed air as an alternative fuel to push the piston. The manufacturer is expecting to roll out at least 6,000 cars by the end of 2008.

Mainly two technologies have been modified to meet up needs: single energy compressed air engines and dual energy compressed air plus fuel engine. In Minicats and Citycats models, the single energy engines will be available while the dual engine will be available with all MDI vehicles.

Both engines will be available with 2, 4, and 6 cylinders. The engine will be equipped to use gasoline, gas oil, bio diesel, gas, liquidized gas, ecological fuel, alcohol and more. Minicat will be projected as urban vehicle while Citycat is meant for long distance utility vehicle. And the most encouraging fact is that it will not cut consumers' pockets by more than 0.75 Euro per 100 km. Instead of the usual speedometer and RPM, the cars will have an onboard computer which will flash the car's information in front of the drive. The seat belt is also different compared to other cars and has been claimed as more secure than ever.

The recharging will be of much convenience and wallet friendly. The quickest way to refill is to go to any petrol station and to refuel it in 2-3 minutes by spending just 1.5 Euros. Alternately the fuel tank is mainly refueled by plugging the car into a socket to feed the motor alternator which compresses the air with the motor-compressor. The average estimated time for refilling has been calculated as 4 hours.