A new agreement between Tata Motors and MDI bring the air-car closer to reality
We have shown you the air-car before, and you may have seen it on TV if you watched the Discovery Channel series, Future Car. If you did, you witnessed them erroneously refer to the possibility of perpetual motion in reference to the air-car. While there is no perpetual motion at work here, there may be production plans in the works. An agreement between Tata Motors and MDI, creators and patent-holders for the air-car and it's powertrain may just bring the air-car to market.
Details of the air-car peg the top-speed at 68 mph, and a range of 200-300 kilometers (up to 186 miles). The tanks containing the compressed air can be refilled at special stations, or using the on-board electric compressor in 3-4 hours. The vehicle is expected to see use primarily in urban environments. Will it ever hit U.S. shores? We'll see, right?
[Source: Business Week via Hugg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris M 5:42PM (3/21/2007)
The Business Week article has a major error. It stated "Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving)". That is 124 to 186 miles, better than the average NEV but well short of the Tesla Roadsters 250 miles (402 Km)or the 350 miles (563 Kn) achieved by the T-Zero LiIon prototype.
Also note the "300 km or 10 hours driving". While the top speed is 68 km/hr (42 mph), calculations show that to get the maximum range means a leisurly 10 hour drive at 30 km/hr (18 mph).
No mention of cold weather performance, but the article does say "the atmospheric temperature is used to re-heat the engine and increase the road coverage". That implies a reduced performance at lower temperatures, and the possibility of the engine freezing up in very cold weather.
This is a Neighborhood Compressed Air Vehicle (NCAV) with limited range, limited performance, and a limited market - but it does have air conditioning!
Reply
Janis Mara 6:17PM (3/21/2007)
Ew! This is one of the ugliest vehicles I've ever seen - makes the Scion XB look positively glamorous. Reminds me of those dreadful tasteless, sugarless, whole-wheat cookies one used to have to down instead of Oreos in the name of health (now, luckily, there are many tasty alternatives). With beauties like the Tesla and cuties like the Smart car, who needs this?
Reply
Murc 12:17AM (3/22/2007)
3-4 hours to filled up air tanks!!!!
No thanks.
(plus it looks butt ugly)
Reply
Tony Belding 7:09PM (3/21/2007)
I am often amazed by the inability of reporters (particularly the "mainstream media") to get any kind of numbers or technical details right in their reports. In my experience they aren't being given bad information, they are usually being given good information and then garbling it beyond recognition. (It's particularly funny when they manage to contradict themselves from one sentence to the next and don't even realize it.) It has reached the point where reading a report without major errors is a cause for astonishment.
Aren't these reporters supposed to at least be high school graduates?
Reply
Tim 8:46PM (3/21/2007)
The mainstream media' job is not to keep us informed. Their job is to generate advertising dollars and promote their owner's and editor's ideology. This is becoming widely known and coupled with the fact that the internet offers a more complete picture of BOTH sides of a story is why the mainstream media is losing patrons. People are simply tuning them out.
Reply
Arnie 6:56AM (3/22/2007)
Frankly, I don't think I've ever seen any report in the media ever (where I know the facts myself) that got things absolutely right.
Reply
phoenexius 10:13AM (3/22/2007)
so why do we even bother with batteries again?
building an air tank must be sooo much cleaner than building a battery.
MDI uses 4500 psi tanks. BMW is talking about 10000+ psi for hydrogen storage. Ba Bing - double the range (or maybe increase the max speed)
Reply
rgseidl 12:57PM (3/22/2007)
India and other emerging economies may be a good market for this technology. Congestion is a huge problem (i.e. average speeds are low) and the diesel exhaust fumes coming out of the antiquated Ambassadors and other vehicles are detrimental to population health. India is roughly tracking European emissions standards but with a lag of several years. The "free" air conditioning will no doubt be welcome in places like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore - where it never gets cold (@Chris M).
Air cars may well prove popular as rickshaws, taxis or delivery vans if the total cost of ownership is well below that of comparable ICE-power vehicles. One problem I foresee is the very high cost of manufacturing carbon fiber tanks to hold the compressed air. I expect Tata will pick a cheaper composite material, even at the expense of range and/or performance. Manufacturing it will still be dirty, of course. Style preferences vary by culture, in India interior space for passengers or cargo may be more important.
Wrt air motor technology, I think the DiPietro rotary design is more elegant than MDI's reciprocating pistons.
http://www.engineair.com.au/
Btw, phoenexious, BMW advocates liquid hydrogen, which is stored at atmospheric pressure at 20 degrees Kelvin.
Reply
Nathan 4:11AM (3/25/2007)
Chris M, if this story is to believed, the top speed is not 68 kph, but 68 mph (which equates to 110 kph). Much more respectable and above the speed limit in nearly all areas.
Rafael (I'm assuming you are the same person from GCC), thanks for the link to Engineair - finally some good technology coming out of my home city. ;)
Reply
Marvin Kitzerow 5:13PM (5/16/2007)
Marvin R.
Automobiles that run on compressed air are a God send to humanity, global warming and a major contributor to world peace and international economies!
I can see solar powered air compressors fueling these compressed air vehicles making the air cars truly zero emission qualified. Ironically, there are already solar powered air compressors in use along oil pipelines that are used to power air tools.
A compressed air refueling infrastructure will be able to be implemented almost over night due to the user friendly nature of compressed air. A large percentage of residential shops already have an air compressor. So, people are already familiar with compressed air. I can invision compressed air availability at K-Mart, Walmart, 7/11 etc., besides service stations.
Compressed air cars make hybrids, hydrogen, electric and bio-fuel cars obsolete. Air cars are the future, here and now. Compressed air is the most cheapest and abundent commodity on the planet so why not use it.
Reply
xander6969 10:30PM (6/04/2007)
Great idea with gas prices soaring over 3.00 a gallon in the USA. I see this destroying the fossil fuel industry that has not had to compete for over 50+ years, I had herd rumors of this idea years ago and heard that the oil companies took out a hit on the designer as it will bankrupt the major oil companies like mobile #1 and texco.
I am all for a short distance alternative that doesn’t cost me 30 bucks a tank on small 10 gallon tank, I might drive 200 miles every 2 weeks from work and leasure. I would buy this car in an instant and give the oil company that price gouges me the finger. I remember less than 5 years ago paying $13.50 USA dollars to fill my tank at that rate of increase I am all about getting away from gas-powered cars now before we see prices in the 5.00 per gallon range. I see a lot of hungry Arabs in the near future and alot of gold palaces built on oil tumbling.
Its not going to have the power of gas, thats understandable. however if you like paying 90 dollars to fill your suv more power to you I rather not make some guy in the middle east rich.
Reply
Gary 9:58PM (6/07/2007)
Arnie - comment # 6: I totally have the same experience, viz. "Frankly, I don't think I've ever seen any report in the media ever (where I know the facts myself) that got things absolutely right."
Reply
Gary 9:59PM (6/07/2007)
I do see a funny side here - a fuel that can leak out without trace and leave you stranded. Refilling with your own on-board compressor may not work if it's a big enough leak. Maybe they will have replaceable pre-compressed air tanks?
Reply
Gary 9:59PM (6/07/2007)
rgseidl - liquid Hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and 20C? Do you mean (dangerous and explosive) gaseous Hydrogen? How can anyone human store LIQUID Hydrogen at atmospheric pressure.. ?
Reply
Tim 12:55PM (6/14/2007)
There are some definite negatives with this car to be sure:
(1) How to heat the interior?
(2) How to power the lighting system at night without reducing range dramatically.
Still,
There is a HUGE market area for automobiles in warm climates.It is the best idea for an automobile power plant I have ever heard of.When I first saw it on the Discovery channel I did not believe it, knowing from experience that I can't even inflate 2 car tires with my air compressor. After reading subsequent articles about its extremely high pressure (carbon fiber) tanks I started to believe it. It is the answer to many problems that currently exist with all other alternative vehicles...fossil fuel use, inefficiency, infrastructure for "refueling". Imagine the air around us being the fuel!
Imagine the ease of adding an air compressor for refilling. Anyone with electricity could add an air compressor to their propery and charge for AIR. The limited range is a problem with battery vehicles because they need HOURS to recharge. With this vehicle, because of the small refill time and (eventually) large availabilty of air stations the limited range becomes far less important. Also add the benefit of being able to refuel at home !
I think the most important benefactor of this vehicle is the environment. Think about it...
(1) The fuel is air.Air in, air out.
(2) Far less use of fossil fuels for lubrication because (I assume) you would not have the degradation of lubrication properties due to high heat and friction.
(3) High efficiency ..direct compression of the cylinders instead of exploding, wasteful, noxious emmitting, high infrastructure cost fuels or environmentally polluting, replacement necessary, long charge time batteries.
Our future is more than likely going to depend on electricity generated by clean sources such as wind, solar,etc..or (hopefully) the holy grail of energy, Nuclear Fusion power plants. I for one would prefer this clean electricity source be used to compress air instead of compressing hydrogen or charging exotic chemical based batteries.
The heat "problem" with these vehicle would eventually be figured out. No one has ever bothered to make an automobile well insulated because of the huge amount of heat emitted (ie: inefficiency) by an internal combustion engine.With a little thought I am sure the heating issue could be overcome. I'm buying one when they are available.
Reply
yauvendra thakur 3:04PM (6/15/2007)
great concept & with 400 kms operating range it would be a sweet choice. though there could be initial hiccups in tems of infrastructure but its definetly goona work.And with company like tata here in india we are surely gonna expect something good.
plus a added thing leaving beside running conpressors its totally environment friendly. I am sure soon they would develop a reverse engg/cycle concept ie is it possible 2 again fill the tanks with compressed air while the vehicle is still running by connecting a small genrator to the compressor on board.
Reply
ShyGuy 3:25AM (11/24/2007)
1) As pointed out by someone else, top speed is 68 MPH and not KPH.
2) Oil chages are recommended every 50,000 KM, which is a little more than 31,000 Miles. The "oil" required is plain old vegetable oil and only one liter is need per oil change. So oil changes should cost a total of less than $5 US over the life of the car instead of $25-30 US every 3-5,000 miles as is needed for internal combustion engines.
3) The idea of solar cells (possibly built into the roof of the vehicles) that could recharge the onboard compressor would indeed extend the driving range of these cars as well as furnish electrical energy to drive lighting systems as well as furnish heat and energy to the blowers and such.
As far as needing large amounts of electricity to drive lighting systems, why would this be? Yes, if ancient lighting systems on current cars is used or even more modern halgen lighting. But why use those systems? Most people using personal lighting such as flashlights and bike lighting have moved to LED lighting systems which generate far more light with a fraction of the energy requirements of traditional lighting systems. I have a keychain light with two LEDS that can almost light up a room and is driven by a single hearing aid sized battery. I am sure more powerful head and tail light/turn signal systems can be developed using this technology.
The lastest iteration of these vehicles has incorporated brake energy recovery systems to recharge battries. This is what helps power the lighting systems now.
So all of the above would be able to provide lighting and other power requirements with little or no loss of driving range.
The only areas that still need improvement are heating because it uses so much energy to generate enough heat to warm car interiors without the benefit of engine heat and low temperature reliability and preservation of driving range since it is the temperature differential between ambient air and the air from the compression tanks that makes this engine work.
Once those are solved, this car will be a major hit in urban and even suburban driving.
At a target price of $10,000, it can't help but be a success.
Reply