The Air Car - Cars Running On Compressed air ?

[rahul_intlad]

So MiniCAT is more like the Zen Estilo

Tata's one lakh car is also supposed to be on similar grounds,or is this car with a normal petrol engine the one lakh car by tata.

[Ram]

Ahhh, the one-lakh tourniquet is all we need to slow our traffic flow to a trickle.

The traffic on our streets and rural highways, carrying man and material from place to place, is the lifeline (blood circulation if you will) of our beloved Nation.

In the sixties and seventies, the wooden spoked bullock-carts, assisted by mysteriously overturning TMB-1210 lorries (the countryside was actually littered with'em), acted as atherosclerotic blocks effectively bottlenecking the flow.

Some angiographic traffic-analysis to see what ails the Nation, will reveal the 3- to 10-passenger rickshaws, Piaggio Apes and Minidors to be today's primary traffic impedances.

Now all we need is an even more ubiquitous, low-priced, low power-to-weight ratio vehicle to follow on.

Will it really put the nation on wheels? Or will it brake the wheels already struggling to turn?

rahul_intlad, aren't we already down to an average flow of 10 km/h in rush hour Pune traffic? How much slower must we sustain?

[goldie_malhotra]

Originally Posted by ram

Some angiographic traffic-analysis to see what ails the Nation, will reveal the 3- to 10-passenger rickshaws, Piaggio Apes and Minidors to be today's primary traffic impedances.

Now all we need is an even more ubiquitous, low-priced, low power-to-weight ratio vehicle to follow on.

At least this one wont turn your face black with the soot and gas they send out.

What ails our traffic is not these low-powered verhicles, but the general lack of road-sense amongst the people driving them. Not that people driving much bigger/flashier cars display more of it.

[Ram]

Originally Posted by goldie_malhotra

What ails our traffic is not these low-powered verhicles, but the general lack of road-sense amongst the people driving them. Not that people driving much bigger/flashier cars display more of it.

The European and American road user has gone through the same civilizing process albeit chronologically earlier. So maybe someday things will improve here.

Today, the horses, carriages and dung-heaps of England are gone and their roads have more homogenous vehicle sizes.

Bicycles are banned from the street and heavy commercial vehicles in urban Europe are not permitted in the city between 08:00 and 23:00.

Even in Singapore, other than in Serangoon (Little India), you will not find jaywalking pedestrians on the road, anywhere except on zebra crossings when the light is red for vehicular traffic.

On the other hand, the colorful heterogenuity in Indian city traffic is unparalleled.

Nowhere else in the world have I seen, wheel-loaders, water-tank trucks, tractor-trailers, 40-foot-container-trailer-rigs, autorickshaws, 50-passenger buses, bicycles, two wheelers of all descriptions, not to mention simple pedestrians vying for roadspace with cars from Maruti 800s and Santros to Hyundai Sonatas.

Heterogenous Pune vs. Homogenous Birmingham

[goldie_malhotra]

Originally Posted by ram

On the other hand, the colorful heterogenuity in Indian city traffic is unparalleled.

Nowhere else in the world have I seen, wheel-loaders, water-tank trucks, tractor-trailers, 40-foot-container-trailer-rigs, autorickshaws, 50-passenger buses, bicycles, two wheelers of all descriptions, not to mention simple pedestrians vying for roadspace with cars from Maruti 800s and Santros to Hyundai Sonatas.

Quite true - The other day I saw a Bentley Flying Spur trying to squeeze in between a ditch by the side of the road and a rickshaw, with a M800 honking madly behind her. Dont think I would get to see this sight anywhere else

Though I agree with the concept of restricting certain vehicles to certain sections of the city/highway. The air-powered car should not be allowed to enter any highway - it could be very dangerous. Ditto for all those assorted set of 3 wheelers dotting the rural landscape.

[hondadude]

Source


LONDON: Tata Motors Ltd has confirmed that it is collaborating to develop an air-powered car with French inventors, a newspaper reported.

Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant told a leading financial daily that his group last year signed an agreement with MDI, a private French company developing cars driven by compressed air.

"It's a very exciting concept, this way of running a car. We hope something will come out of it," Kant said.

He confirmed Tata Motors had the technology rights for India and was "studying whether it can be used".

Tata was looking at applying the technology for both mobile and stationary uses, he said in an interview published Sunday.

Reports last week said Tata was looking at the feasibility of applying the technology to power generation. According to MDI, which is based near Nice, compressed air technology can be applied to emergency generators.

Guy Negre, the French engineer who is working on the invention, was quoted saying last week his five-seater OneCat, with zero emissions in cities, will be marketed within a year.

[supercars]

Well Ram. I have advise for you since you love London/Singapore/anywhere else, please shift there and be happy there.

Once you stay there long enough, you will know what India is; no other country is.

Well in many parts of the cities, trucks are not allowed in after 9 AM.

I am sure, I will see Ram as one of the people breaking all the rules of good road driving.

btw your post was made a long time ago. I hope you read Tata's comments when he launched the Nano. He is trying to help the guy who owns a bike who has a family and not to give rich men a new cheap toy.

[v&v]

i saw a program on discovery channel regarding the air car and its technology.

the program says this is a workable technology and some indian companies are also working on this technology. i heard even TATAs are too getting into it.

it is even said , it have a compressor which will compress the air and can be self sustaining. Car running of just air....

Air car ready for production : Yahoo! Green

this is one of links for details.
Guy any more info please share.

[dhaval]

Glad to know that the "Air Car" will be built by our very own Tata Motors. India's shining kudos to Tata.

[Rehaan]

Threads merged

Heres another thread on the TATA aspect of it : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...logy-home.html

cya
R