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Tata Motors, once derided as the company with a name that sounds like it ought to be spread on a Fillet-o-Fish, has been making some serious forward movement in the past year or two.
Now, hot on the heels of its recent acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar, and news of the impending assault on the European market with the Tata Nano, the Indian company is set to release a car powered entirely by air.
But is it all hot air? Turns out it's very much a legitimate prospect. Sure, it looks bloody ordinary, but let's look beyond the styling for the moment.
The MiniCAT (Compressed Air Technology), invented by French madman and ex-F1 engineer Guy Negre and his company Motor Development International (MDI), is a lightweight fibreglass urban car built around a tubular chassis which is glued together rather than welded. More importantly than that, and as you've no doubt gathered, it's powered entirely by compressed air.
Around 6000 of these zero-emissions Air Cars are planned to blow onto Indian streets by August 2009.
Tata's Air Car, which MDI calls a MiniCAT, is expected to cost the equivalent of $8177 in India, and would have a range of about 300km between refuels—an event which, due to the fact you're only paying for the power needed to work the compressor, would cost around $2.
Until the market for this car is properly developed though, owners will find included a small compressor which can be connected to any regular power supply, and will refill the tank within 3-4 hours.
If all that weren't enough, the Air Car's lack of a combustion engine means that the need for regular oil changes is a thing of the past, as new oil is only needed every 50,000km. That's one very welcome extra zero on the end.
Here's some nifty bullet points for you.
- The Air Car runs a specially developed piston engine that uses a new thermo dynamic cycle offering exceptional energy efficiency.
- Compressed air is stored in carbon fibre tanks, at 300 bar (4,351 psi).
- The CAT engine operates on four cycles: intake and compression, combustion, expansion, and exhaust.
- Outside air is drawn into the compression chamber and compressed to 20 bar (290 psi). At the highest point of pressure (at ‘top dead centre’), this air reaches 400°C (centigrade), and, at that point, air from the storage tank is injected into the combustion chamber.
- Since the injected air is much colder than the compressed air in the chamber, the injected air is heated instantaneously, causing a sudden expansion, which pushes the piston down (in an expansion stroke)
- The air tanks fitted to the underside of the vehicle can hold 300 litres of compressed air, capable of driving the MiniCAT for up to 200km.
- Using a household electrical source, it takes about 4 hours for the vehicle to refill its own compressed air tanks (a rapid three minute recharge is possible using an external high-pressure air pump.
- The MiniCAT runs an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT)
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Filed under: Featured, Tata, 2012, india, News, air car, minicat, tata minicat, mini cat, tata mini cat, tata air car, tata air
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5 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
80% of australia's electricity is currently provided by burning brown coal - therefore anything like this would directly be powered by fossil fuels!
5 years ago
5 years ago
Our survival depends on green power so we should assume cleaner power generation in 20 years anyway.
Also, are you seriously arguing that it would be cleaner to run our cars on petrol and NOT from baseload Coal power?? Consider the pollution generated just getting oil to the gas station, let alone individual car use. It's huge in comparison to the pollution caused by building air car infrastructure. Reconsider please.
4 years ago
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5 years ago
i quite like the idea, could make it a hybrid and use the regenerative braking to pressurise the tank
5 years ago
2 years ago
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5 years ago
If this is reality then we are entering into a new age and this is the end of OIL-Age ...
The zero pollution is the rearkable issue.
Hats off to the Inventor
5 years ago
5 years ago
I am interesting this air car, but why there is no any offical news about this car? If this car have many advantaage to our earth, why every country do not to speed up to production this car? Why oil or gas prise is rising high?
5 years ago
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5 years ago
new revolution in world!!!!!!
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5 years ago
Rotary engines run brilliantly on air.
5 years ago
5 years ago
http://howtosaveanearth.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/air-cars-very-exciting-stuff/
-The air car needs about 21 KWhr to travel 200 km.
-Dr Arnoux said the air engine technology could also be used to power homes.
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Air Cars! Very exciting stuff?!
I read about these briefly about six months ago, but the topic has come up again in some of the environmental press and I have had a chance to look properly into the concept of air powered cars. I have to say, from what I have read, I am excited! There are questions about the hype of it all, but even only half of it turns out to be true, these things will be a lethal weapon in the fight against peak oil, and in a smaller part, climate change. My findings;
MELBOURNE is set to be the manufacturing home base for a car that operates with zero emissions and can run solely on compressed air. Guy Negre, who used to design engines for Formula One team Renault, has spent the past 15 years developing the air engine and says the first manufacturing plant will be established in Melbourne with cars expected to go on sale next year. Compressed air, not petrol, pushes the engine’s pistons, which can then take the vehicle up to 110 kilometres an hour. Running on compressed air alone, the car can travel 150 kilometres, but when the air is heated externally and incorporated with a fuel source, such as ethanol or diesel, it is possible to travel from Perth to Brisbane without refuelling. Dr Arnoux said the car would be economically and environmentally friendly. He said the first small car would retail for less than $8000 and running costs would be 80% lower than current comparable vehicles. IT MDI-Energy aims to reduce car emissions in Australia over the next 10 years by 20%. The company says that more than 7000 new jobs will be created over the next five years. The car can be refuelled by plugging it into the compressed air supply that is found at most service stations. Dr Arnoux said the air engine technology could also be used to power homes.
Sounds good doesn’t it! $8000 is super, super cheap for a car, and for a while anyway, you would be able to essentially steal free fuel in the form of petrol station refilling. 110km/h and a range of 150km on air alone between refills really is more than enough for most people. I know that if those amost too good to be true claims deliver, I will be seriously considering one…
So you have heard the hype, now how do they really stack up? The Oil Drum have posted a very, very comprehenisve overview of everything to do with this idea, which is very well worth the read for anyone who cares about the future. Here are the very interesting calculations they got;
If I remember my high school physics and chemistry right, the energy E required to compress air at 25C is,E = 110,000 x ln (P1/P2) /m3/mol
There are about 45mol air in 1m3, so,E = 110,000 x ln (P1/P2) /m3
This howstuffworks article tells us that an air car tank might have 300lt at 4,561psi, which is 29,999,087.707 - call it 30,000 kPa.
Atmospheric pressure is 101.3kPa.
300lt at 30,000kPa will be 90,000lt at atmospheric pressure, or 90m3.
And so we get,E = 110,000 x ln (30,000 / 101.3) x 90= 110,000 x 5.69 x 90= 56,331,000J
which is 15.6kWhr
However, a company which supplies air compressors tells us that “Most systems typically waste 25 to 50 percent of the energy required to generate compressed air that actually provides useful work.“
Let’s be optimistic and assume that with lots of air cars zooming around, service stations will buy the most efficient (expensive) compressors. So we get just a 25% loss.
This brings us to 20.9kWhr.Let’s round it up to 21kWhr to refill the tank.
Again, this isn’t the air car referred to in the article, but it gives us an idea of the order of magnitude.
21kWhr to travel 200km.
A regular small city car gets about 10km/lt. Petrol costs about $1.30/lt, and causes 2.32kg CO2e/lt. So to go 200km in a regular car would cost $26 and cause 46.4kg CO2e in emissions.
Electricity from coal cost $0.1355/kWh and 1.21kg CO2e/kWh, so the 200km journey would cost $2.85 and cause 34.9kg CO2e in emissions.
Electricity from wind costs $0.19/kWh and causes 0.04kg CO2e/kWh. So the 200km journey would cost $3.99 and cause 0.84kg CO2e in emissions.
The average Australian car is driven 15,000km annually. That’d be 75 refills, or 1,575kWh energy in all. That’s not bad when the average household uses 6,000kWhr annually.
Presumably service stations could do things better than we could at home, since they can buy the big heavy and efficient equipment; if service stations supply so much compressed air, they’ll start charging more for it, more than the power costs. Still, it seems that running it on compressed air will be significantly cheaper in money terms.However, if the air is compressed by electricity got from coal, the greenhouse gas emissions will be comparable to simply burning petrol in the car.Again, not perfect calculations, but the best we can do with the data we’ve got, and they give us an order of magnitude idea of the numbers involved.
Very, very interesting indeed. If this proves to be true, we are in for some very exciting times in the world of sustainability and energy generation.
5 years ago
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According to Jon Sopel, BBC Europe correspondent, who drove one of the early prototypes in 2002, "An earlier version of the car that we drove was noisy and slow, and a tiny bit cumbersome. What the company is aiming at is the urban motorist: delivery vehicles, taxi drivers, and people who just use their car to nip out to the shops."
So Harry, maybe that Anglia of yours could do with a bit more 'air-power'... (put it 'over the pit' at the Gryffindor House workshops).
The Insider
5 years ago
5 years ago
Still I am at large to know about the "combustion" process.
Ramani
5 years ago
Mankind's been working on the internal combustion engine for about 150 years. Auto technology has come a long way since the '08 Model T Ford. Electric-driven vehicles
might be just a "good battery" away. This stuff takes time. Thus, if the "Air Car" even comes close to what's been reported, it could be that giant leap this planet needs to curb its emissions and oil-consumption dilemmas. If the electrical source providing air into the car's tanks is either solar, wind or water-driven, one couldn't ask for a better environment situation.
Also, having a huge auto-producer like Tata Motors involved, lends a great deal of credibility to this endeavor. I'm hoping--like most of the world--that the "Air Car" is . . . for real.
Ray, Normal, IL USA
5 years ago
5 years ago
and have found the workmanship and quality far better and
cheaper than any similar....More Bang For Buck!!!
I have no hesitation in buying INDIAN MADE and I am
confident Mini CAT Air car will turn the oil companys
on there head.............NOW how the hell can I get one
in Perth West Australia.... ASAP...Im getting older
5 years ago
When you find out where we in Australia (Sydeny) can purchase one now, lwt me know.
Thanks
Lisa
5 years ago
5 years ago
""The project is under progress. We do not yet have any timeframe for launch," said Debasis Ray, the head of corporate communications for Tata Motors."
The history of MDI and the air car is a series of grand promises, many claims, and lots of projections to bring in additional investors. So far it has been more of an investment pyramid scheme that a serious industrial design effort.
REF: quote is from near the bottom of http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/08/air.car/
5 years ago
http://www.engineair.com.au/company.htm
The founder, Angelo Di Pietro has developed a rotary air engine, and has produced several prototype burden carriers for use in a wholesale market.
His products are real, although limited in performance, and in my opinion his company is much more forthcoming and accurate about actual performance and potential future performance.
5 years ago
5 years ago
None of the News Channels nor TATA have disclosed this news similar to Tata Nano.
On the contrary I came across a hoax news on a site
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forums/viewthread/7437/
I have dropped a mail to tata confirming this news.
If this news is really true, at least my dream of owning an eco-friendly car will come true
5 years ago
i had made a machine working on the same principal and air compression only problem was lack of finance and buying the tank.
can anyone please provide me the link or the concerned person to be contacted for the tank.
4 years ago
Fuel Characteristics:
Compressed Air: 3200 ft3 @ 4500 psi
Charger: On board 5.5 kwh 110/220 v compressor generating 812 ft3 /hr.
Please calculate the volume of 3200 ft3 = 3200 * 0.3m^3 = 3200 x 0.027 = 86.4 m3. Can you imagine 2 m wide tank 2 m high and 21.6 m long?
Ether I am wrong with my calculations or the specification is wrong by the order of 100 - or the whole air car is a hoax.
In other publications it is said the air tank is 300 l. Even forgetting what I tried to prove above I can't imagine the tank compressed to 300 bar. Will any authority allow it?
In spite of that I hope I am wrong and the air car is viable.
3 years ago
Have just read your post about the tank for this 'Air' car. This does seem to be a stumbling block for the development of such a car due to the range it would give. I have found a way around this using a new tank technology.
If you are still around contact me on rdellow@gmail.com so we can possibly discuss.
regards
Robbie Dellow
5 years ago
5 years ago
Think about that and we will all become greenies.
5 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
agree to what you say. There is no need to spread the word. Word is already out and no amount of surpressing by any agency, facility, government, or private or independent body, Oil Barons, or super powers will prevent the AIR Car to come in sooner or later. IT IS THE CAR OF THE FUTURE. Technology has come a long way from the steam engine, internal combustion engine and the electric engine. If the super rich want to cap in on the AIR ENGINE, now is the time, or let the masses take over and have a people's car, boat, motor bike or any equipment that needs circular motion.
5 years ago
5 years ago
5 years ago
Of course, if you do refill that quickly, the air in the tank will be very very hot (which is why the fill rate on scuba tanks is deliberately slowed down)
Just like CNG cars, I would expect that a fast fill to full pressure settle down to about 75% of full pressure after cooling back off.
IF these cars could achieve the claimed range of 200km, then they would meet the needs of many commuters and urban dweller. Unfortunately, the real range of the vehicles has never been independently shown, other than a test from early 2000 where the MDI car ran out of air after 7.22km. But even back then, MDI was claiming that the production cars due out in 2002 would have 200km range.
In my opinion, the history of inflated, never realized claims makes me very sceptical that MDI will ever deliver a car with the claimed performance.
5 years ago
5 years ago
The only road test results MDI has ever published of their prototypes showed it running out of air after only 7.22km.
http://tinyurl.com/mditestresults
They have announced "production in 12-24 months" almost every year since 2000. They have never gone into production, and nobody seems to know what happened to the past plans. http://tinyurl.com/mdi2004
http://tinyurl.com/zeropollutionmotors1
http://tinyurl.com/zeropollutionmotors2
The road test results where the car ran out of air after only 7.22km is in my opinion a very important document, and it is unfortunate that MDI took it off their website and didn't replace it with any new info.
The main technical obstacle to compressed air vehicles is the low energy storage density of air. In other words, it take a large, heavy tank of air to store the same energy as one can easily store in a battery.
The last info I have seen directly from Tata was a statement by the head of their passenger car division saying that the MDI technology was not ready for production in the near future.
5 years ago
2.howmuch rupees of this car on the road?
4 years ago
4 years ago
Please,If it is posible ,If anyone knows the contact
persons-salers,or oficia ldistributor of MDI,Tata-Air CAr, send to us
account or write as how can we reach the goal. Our Email:
nodartushishvili@gmail.com
georgeaskurava@ymail.com
4 years ago
4 years ago
a) Fossil fuels - not necessarily
b) Plenty of people just want to get a-b, no need to haul - I suspect mini, fiat 500, beetle, scooters, smart etc would suggest theres a scaleable market here
c) 70mph
4 years ago
4 years ago
4 years ago
We need cheap, safe, transport that doesn't pollute the planet
Cars are not fashion accessories they are machines, all of them are ugly but some are necessary, until we find better options ( eg wings !!) - just like a washing machine the car is there to do a job. You would complain bitterly if a "washing machine that was deemed to look fantastic" but failed to properly clean your clothes
Looks ain't everything !
4 years ago
So far, I haven't heard any word from Tata other than "the MDI technology is nascent", that it needs a lot of additional work, and that no cars will be forthcoming in the near future.
Has anybody heard anything different? Has anybody heard Tata say when (or IF) they intend to sell an air powered car?
4 years ago
We need for uae Airport SHUTTLE BUS which are using to shift passangers from airline to immagration CIF dubai price.
Thanks
4 years ago
No sign of Tata's air powered car.
No car.
No announcement of a future release.
No word on any development.
Is it just hot air?
4 years ago
But im more interested in the fact we can stop paying the Saudis and other Oil rich nations money for holding us to ransom. Bye Bye oil, bring on the electric and air.
4 years ago
Per andare al lavoro uso un'auto a metano che ha già19 anni la vostra auto ad aria é giusto il mezzo che necessito.Mi costa meno dei mezzi pubblici.
Ricordatevi di munirla di riscaldamento abitacolo.
4 years ago
4 years ago
He declined to confirm whether or not Tata has abandoned the project.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_tamo-s-ambitious-air-car-faces-starting-trouble_1316093
4 years ago
- This AirPod can’t obtain approval with its technical characteristics.
- The sole purpose of MDI is to sell manufacturing licenses.
4 years ago
You should learn the basic principles of thermodynamics.
3 years ago
3 years ago
Now that our government has taken over the auto industry--an interesting thing has developed. We find the government leaders in the recent past decrying carbon pollutions and greenhouse warming--GO GREEN. But now the government OWNS a major carbon footprint industry themselves. Will they buy into the sensible, economic green experiment, or dowse it with fuel as a competitive threat? We will see if they start talking out BOTH sides of their mouth!
As for me, I LOVE ALTERNATIVES!!!
3 years ago
I would love to see this engine developed to power our homes, or pump water--alternative living systems.
2 years ago
In India current petrol cost is Rs. 62.50 (02/02/2011)
If I drive a car say Maruti Alto K10 it will give me a good mileage of 16kmpl. So its 16km for Rs.62.50
This is approximately Rs. 3.9 a kilometer.
Air cars claim to give range from 300 km per full tank, but I assume 250 practically. Filling the tank costs Rs. 60 of electricity. So the cost per kilometer is Rs. 0.24
If I am driving 2000 kms a month on the petrol car it would cost me Rs 7800 ($180)
and If I am driving 2000kms a month on an air car it would cost me Rs. 480 ($11)
Whats your preference?
Also, when the petrol and diesel car drivers dont care about pollution why are they coming up to challenge air cars? Even if it is NOT a 0 pollution vehicle it is at least an extremely cost effective one.
Nothing is pollution free, In fact we fail to realise humans are also pollutants since we take in oxygen and release carbondioxide. So quit yapping and get working to correct the mistakes.
petroleum has crippled every human being and have made us a slave of it. Every technology we have has been there for over hundreds of years and there is nothing new, just just a new version of the same.
Some say nuclear power is clean. I dont think they have seen the effects of radiation on humans and animals. The choices in the future should be hydro, wind and solar power as sources. We dont know when mother nature wants to get rid of its pests, that is "we the people of the world".
2 years ago
But how many will invest in them
That is the key
Funny not many have got off the ground
The oil companies have very deep pockets
2 years ago
This change is a response to environmental awareness and, if you think it's slow, you should have seen the growth of environmental awareness 30yrs ago; snails would have won. We are way past that.
2 years ago
Being a very lightweight vehicle, energy requirement is very low. Energy requirement for speciality microcars (with very low payload) can be as low as 0.2MJ/km. Current lightweight cars with two passengers require around 1MJ/km (equiv to 3L/100km petrol consumption).
Assume practical energy requirement for this car is 0.5MJ/km
Thus energy required for 300km is 150MJ
Assume efficiency of converting air pressure energy to mechanical energy is 70% (Conversion efficiency is non-linear, high when pressure is high, poor when pressure drops. Also, not all pressure can be converted - the storage cannot be reduced to atmospheric pressure. This is a generous assumption.)
Thus air energy required for 300km is 150MJ/0.7 = 214MJ
Assume efficiency of compressing air (electrical energy to air energy) is 50% (compression causes the air to heat which is wasted energy; 50% is a generous assumption.) Thus electrical energy required is 214/0.5 = 429MJ or 119 kWh. Cost at 20c/kWh is $23.81.
Equivalent petrol requirement for 300km at 1.5L/100km is 4.5L. Cost at $1.40/L is $6.30.
Obviously the air car is much more expensive to run.
Another problem: maximum practical isothermal compressed air storage capability is 100kJ/m3. Thus volume required to store the compressed air required for 300km is 214,000/100 = 2140m3. This is equivalent to a cube with side dimension of 12.9m.
Conclusion: this TATA thing is a fraud.
2 years ago
I saw a special on the development of Compressed air motor in a large food market in Australia to stop the engine fumes in close proximity to people. The benefits are there!
Is there a perpetual engine? No! What if a combination solution was possible. I think by combining solar, Ionized liquid batteries, high charge generation and the compressed air would add up to a virtual perpetual system. Include Syngas(Link energy) into the mix and you may get the clean energy hybrid system of all time.
Very interesting concept or pipe dream?
Regards.
ps. Congratulations TATA on a low cost vehicle that will make a difference!
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