[FERRO]

Indica/Indigo looks were designed in the same house where Fiats Siena, Palios, Suzuki SX4 (also known Fiat sedici) and numerous other beauties were designed

[abdul 65 amg]

I know that company from South Korea called Energine, the tech ' Phev' can power boats , cars, trucks.The air is compressed in the engine no co2 emission , few parts are in mechanism

[neoonwheels]

[quote=manjubp;454215]Ugly looking and it is TATA cars

Indica : Considering that it is nearly decade old design, even today one of the best looking hatch backs.

Indigo : Same as Indica

Safari : The best looking SUV below 10L

Ace : Much better than the others like omini(cargo), Minidor, etc.,


Lol.... Indigo and best ooking??? are you ok ?? Safari Best looking under 10L... how many SUVs are present under 10L to compete with?? I am fully agreed for Ace...

[Mayavi]

Search youtube if you want to see videos of the Compressed Air car.
Agreed these cars are not very fast and agreed that TATA had never made any car in the league of Ferrari's but then 90% of people in India and around the world do not want to drive Ferraris on an everyday basis
And no, this is not the 1 lakh car. The 1 Lakh car is a 30 hp four door hatch back and is most probably going to be a Kit car.

[adc]

That car design is pathetic, however, most likely it is just a stock image.

Business

[Tech]

Hey Guys, Seems like this is not reported anywhere in Team-BHP.

Tatas are coming with their 1 lac car preview as well as likely this Air car in Delhi Jan 2008 to showcase their capabilities. This costs 50 paise to run per kilometer which is half times cheaper than CNG and these pollution free vehicles cars are expected to deliver a maximum speed of up to 220 km/hour. Take a look at these sites -

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2286524.cms

Tata Developing Air Car? - The Car Connection

Air car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Tatas to hit the road with air car in '08
17 Aug, 2007, 0225 hrs IST

NEW DELHI: The Rs 1-lakh car isn’t the only affordable technology that Tata Motors will introduce in 2008. India’s largest four-wheel automaker has plans to bring out cars fired by compressed air, the cheapest auto fuel in the world.

Tata Motors will start producing cars running on air fuel, sometime in 2008. These are expected to deliver the lowest running cost across all passenger car segments, and could be much lower than CNG, the cheapest on-road fuel (with a running cost of a rupee per kilometre) right now. The cost of a fuel refill would be about Rs 90, and each refill is expected to deliver a distance in the range of 150-200 km.

These cars are expected to be in the same price band as the current Indica range (approximately around Rs 3.50 lakh) and will probably mirror the European variant called MiniCAT, which runs on the same engine technology. These pollution free vehicles are expected to deliver a maximum speed of up to 220 km/hour and their debut may coincide with the launch of the Rs 1-lakh car, next year.

When contacted, Tata Motors spokesperson refused to comment on the possible launch of these air fuelled cars but said, “The engine and the technology is being further refined, and still requires a couple of years’ work. It is premature to comment on the exact timing of launch, pricing etc. The effort is to deploy innovations such that pricing makes them competitive alternatives in the market. The technology is exclusive to Tata Motors and will cover a range of applications — automotive, power generation etc.”

Sources in the automobile industry say Tata Motors is experimenting with the technology on its different models and mass production of the ‘Air Car’ could commence next year for the domestic market. These are expected to be the first air-powered vehicles in India.

Earlier this year, Tata Motors signed an agreement with Moteur Development International (MDI) of France to source technology to develop engines powered by compressed air. These cars were developed by Guy Negre, a former Formula One engineer, and the engines are gasoline, fuel gas, bio-diesel, liquid gas, ecological fuel, alcohol and ethanol blend compatible.

Sources add that Tata Motors could launch a limited number of these cars in India under a pilot project, which are already available in select markets in Europe and South Africa. The licence to manufacture and distribute such air-powered cars have also been sold to companies in Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and the US, apart from Tata Motors, which is the sole licensee of the technology in India.


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Tata Developing Air Car?Indian automaker looks to ride on thick air


Air Car

The air car has been resurrected.

For decades, automotive engineers have been working with the idea of a car that would run on compressed air - or, to elucidate, use compressed air as an energy storage method.

That reality might be a lot closer. Only recently brought to our attention through Gizmag, Indian automaker Tata Motors last month entered an agreement with France 's MDI Group, a company founded in the 1990s to develop a compressed-air engine that could fit a variety of uses.

Although Tata hasn't yet announced its intent with the technology, and its product may not take the form of the boxy, lightweight Air Car variants as MDI envisions them, the automaker will likely use the core technology developed by MDI, which includes both a so-called single-fuel engine which runs only on compressed air and a double-fuel engine that runs on compressed air at lower speeds and can switch to conventional fuels for speeds above 50 km/h (31 mph).

The engine uses a unique connecting rod design that allows the piston to stay at top dead center for 70 percent of the crankshaft rotation, allowing pressure to build. It's paired with a plastic-fiber high-pressure storage tank, similar to what's used with natural-gas vehicles, which keeps the air up to a pressure of more than 4000 psi and can be recharged at an air station in about three minutes. The range is supposedly better than 200 km (124 miles).

The arrangement, as you might expect, has nearly no emissions at the tailpipe (though of course overall efficiency depends on the compressor used to fill (pressurize) the tank. The engine's lubrication oil, a liter of vegetable oil, needs to be changed once every 50,000 km (31,000 miles). And, the air expelled may actually be cleaner than the air taken in, as it is run through a carbon filter to remove larger contaminants that might be damaging.

Considering the burgeoning demand for vehicles in emerging markets, the compressed-air engine system could be a potential interim solution for maintaining growth in the vehicle sector if the price of gasoline were to spike. With MDI proposing complete cars beginning at about 6800 euros ($9000), the system also likely costs much less than electric-car components and has similar potential to help improve air quality in smog-choked emerging-market big cities.

[Vid6639]

Yup we covered that as well:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...logy-home.html

[xinome]

its covered allrite, i will be the first one to book it! then i can make it to all team-bhp meets, yahoo! who cares about FE i have plants growing in my back seat!

[Sam Kapasi]

WOW, a car that runs on vegetable oil and air??

The engine's lubrication oil, a liter of vegetable oil, needs to be changed once every 50,000 km (31,000 miles).

I can see it now, GTO advising people to change from Postman to Saffola to make the car healthier and last longer.

[epyupc]

Wikipedia has a section where someone thinks the car is a scam, and that MDI are exaggerating the range. They are apprantly very interested in getting someone to invest in the company.

I can't believe that Honda/Toyota etc will sit back if they see potential in the idea.

On the other hand, if they are devoloping it internally, and are in the final stages, we would have heard about it. Otherwise they would have just bought the technology, as MDI has been trying to hawk this for a while

Look at something like the Tweel by Michelin... They are saying the development will take atleast another 9 years(2016)before it can be launched commercially for cars.

I don't believe a car that runs on compressed air will be commercially available next year (or even 2009)...

Hope I'm proved wrong, because it will be amazing for an Indian company to do something like this.

[Zappo]

Threads merged. Carry on your discussions here.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

WOW, a car that runs on vegetable oil and air??

I can see it now, GTO advising people to change from Postman to Saffola to make the car healthier and last longer.

Just imagine Sam, a car that breathes air and lives on vegetable oil. And then maybe every 25k it will go for rejuvenation when it will be fed continental stuff as well. For coolants it will have lassi or buttermilk (chhaas). It may even do nakhras for chinese stuff when it passes by Mainland China. heinnn heinnnn heinnnnn... do I see the next Sam story in the making?

[Vayalam]

It all looks like a beautiful dream. Tell me what the multinational oil companies will do this dream really comes true? It must be giving them nightmares!

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Vehicles running on compressed air? reminds me of balloons - the fully inflated ones with necks open. Sort of like this:-
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/balloon_jet.jpg

[gd1418]

circa 1998 - December: My new acquisition a 4x4 Tata Safari. Went to Hauzkhas market in New Delhi to make some purchases. Could see the heads turning on seeing this Black Beauty. When I came back saw a horde of curious onlookers huddled around my truck. In unison they were admiring its lines and contours.

Despite a flood of other beauties in the auto market now, DICOR still remains a head turner. And you call TATA stable products ugly???

Originally Posted by srishiva

Looks really promising. So what are the chances of we driving around in pollution free, cheap to run but ugly (TATA) cars.