In 2007 Tata Motors of India announced to the world that they had developed a car that would run on compressed air and that it would be on the market by 2008. In fact they even displayed a car (see below) and said that at least 6,000 would be on the road within months.
There were some remarkable claims made at the launch of this car:-
• It would be totally emission free at the exhaust
• It could be re-charged at home in 4 hours, or at a garage in minutes
• It could have a range of several hundred kilometers before it needs a re-charge
• It would be frozen air that could be directly used as an airconditioner etc.etc.
• A fully optioned car could be put on the road for less than $10,000!
It sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it. So why haven’t we heard more?
Well, that’s a bit of a puzzle as Tata Motors, whilst being the largest vehicle manufacturer in India (and they also own Jaguar and Land Rover) have gone strangely quiet. Tata did admit to having some heat exchange problems with the technology a couple of years ago. In 2009 the University Of Berkely in California published a report that said “Even under highly optimistic assumptions the compressed-air car is significantly less efficient than a battery electric vehicle and produces more greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional gas powered car with a coal intensive power mix.
On the other hand Luxembourg-based MDI, the developer of the concept, is much more confident.
Their latest design (shown below with and without clothes) was exhibited at the Paris Motor show last year.
Financial support for this venture has been provided to MDI by Tata, and MDI is certainly upbeat about putting an air-compressed powered car on the roads in the near future.
So will it happen?
We shall see.