Tata Motors' air-powered car -- green portfolio candidate

Posted May 31st 2007 3:24PM by Tom Barlow
Filed under: Products and Services, Launches, India, Tata Mtrs Ltd (TTM)

Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE:TTM), the Indian motor vehicle giant, is bringing to market a new car that could find a warm fuzzy home in the hearts of green drivers. The Air Car uses compressed air to drive its pistons. Refills are as simple as a stop at the compressor station, and cost a reported $2 for 340 liters of air at a pressure of 4,350 psi. The car also has a built-in compressor to recharge its tank from any electrical outlet in four hours.

Tata claims the car can reach speeds of 68 mph and travel up to 125 miles between charges. It was designed by MDI of Luxembourg, who hopes to license the design worldwide.

Tata's CityCAT model is expected to list for $12,700. The company hopes to have 6,000 cars on the streets by next year. Unfortunately, the design is too fragile to meet U.S. requirements, so don't expect to see one soon.

While this seems like a step forward, one has to question how the power used to compress the air is produced, and just how scalable such an energy source is. Nonetheless, it sounds like an idea well worth exploring. As the next presidential election cycle starts, perhaps the hot air produced could be put to some good use.

More coverage on Tata Motors and the Air Car from AutoblogGreen:

February 8, 2007: India's Tata Motors, France's MDI announce agreement to bring Air Car to U.S.
March 21, 2007: Agreement between MDI, Tata Motors brings Air Car closer to reality
May 29, 2007: The Air Car: How compressed air propulsion works
May 31, 2007: Video and information on Air Car's engine
June 9, 2007: Interview with Miguel Celades, Sales Manager for MDI

Tags: cityCat, ecology, global warming, GlobalWarming, green car, green transportation, GreenCar, GreenTransportation, mdi, tata motors, TataMotors

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-03-2007 @ 1:12PM

Mark Redden said...

Tom,

I find that your one question never seems to be answered: what about the power used to compress the air, where does that come from?

How about using that question to compare all of our transport fuel/energy possibilities? (And, include all of the resources and impacts associated with each.)

I'd like to see the list include: gasoline, hydrogen, biofuels, electric vehicle batteries and compressed air.

The comparison for electric vehicle batteries might include: exploration, mining and processing (of raw resources), transport and manufacturing, distribution, charging and recharging, recycling and disposal. Also included would be habitat destruction due to mining, pollution due to accidents and improper disposal, etc.

I'm convinced that if one did a full analysis of these fuel/energy choices that compressed air would come out on top.

As for the energy sources to compress the air - the US could produce 9 times more energy than it currently uses with the new megawatt-class wind turbines and concentrated solar power.

I hope you will pursue this further. Thanks for the article.

Regards,
Mark Redden
markaredden@hotmail.com