Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

How about this??

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Now this could really put the screws to the Middle East and the carbon foot print.................
All I can say is, “WOW!”
What is this?
Will it be the next big thing?
Tata Motors of India thinks so.
What will the Oil Companies do to stop it?

It is an auto engine that runs on air. That's right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. Take a look.

Tata Motors of India has scheduled the Air Car to hit Indian streets

The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons and make the car go.

The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT" could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.

The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical device on the car. Which are not many.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.


There are no keys, just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees per 100 KM, that's about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. It's mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car, a factor which makes it a perfect choice for city motorists.

The car has a top speed of 105 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 185 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 100 rupees ($1.78 CAD!) and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.


This car can also be filled at home with it's on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.

Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles.
Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.

This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true.


P.S. If Mr Tata and Mr Guy sucuumb to a mysterious illness or dies in an accident, then you know how the the oil companies have reacted, as they have done in the past when faced with the prospect of sudden diminished demand for their oil.
 

Attachments

  • air car.pdf
    32.3 KB · Views: 143
Last edited:
It looks not that small. For en EV that size to go 300 km on a charge I'd wager it would need a pack of at least 20 kWh (this car air tank is probably lighter than a battery, not sure how much lighter though with all that compressed air). So how high would the pressure in the tank have to be when "fully charge" to hold that kind of potential energy??? 100 bar? 1000 bar??? I wouldn't even be able to guess this. Pump all that pressure up in 2-3 minutes? Really? Sounds dangerous but I might just be ignorant. Must be extreme problems with temperature/moisture when you compress that much air...

Edit:
Ok from wikipedia about 300 bar (4500 psi) so I was closish :)

Also per wikipedia:
"
The overall efficiency of a vehicle using compressed air energy storage, using the above refueling figures, is around 5-7%.[citation needed] For comparison, well to wheel efficiency of a conventional internal-combustion drivetrain is about 14%,[9]"

Not great figures...
 
Last edited:
Vehicles fueled by compressed air....


In short: energy density

Compressed air is a form of energy storage and there are limits how much you can compress it. The more it is compressed, more energy it containes. On Tesla's blog their is a mention of 5 to 10 times LOWER energy density of compressed air than current LiIon batteries. It is an interesting thing for short show-ups, but you would never get any reasonable range out of it.

Yet another thing that looks cool to a jurnalist, but an engineer would just wave his hand.


 
Take a look at the car's process using the onboard compressor for a moment.

The car is plugged in, and takes the electricity from the wall and uses it to compress air into its storage tank. Later, you unplug it and drive in the compressed air.

With this paradigm it should be obvious that it is effectively in the same role as an electric car - all of the energy comes to the car from an external source in a usable form and is stored onboard.

The problem is that the energy storage weighs more and both 'charging' it and getting that 'charge' of compressed air to the wheels are much less efficient. Air heats up when compressed (which both limits the storage and costs energy that will leak out of the car as the tank cools,) and then cools when it expands (robbing more energy, though making for simple air conditioning.)

If there were massive natural sources of compressed air, it might make sense, but as it is their quick charge has stations are going to be using grid power to compress the air, making the compressed air car a close relative of the hydrogen car running off of electrolysis sourced hydrogen - both functional solutions that can work and are potentially low emissions - but both far less efficient than just using the electricity in a modern electric car in the first place.

(And both more dangerous in a crash situation, if safety systems aren't up to the task.)
Walter
 
Last edited:
Take a look at the car's process using the onboard compressor for a moment.

The car is plugged in, and takes the electricity from the wall and uses it to compress air into its storage tank. Later, you unplug it and drive in the compressed air.

With this paradigm it should be obvious that it is effectively in the same role as an electric car - all of the energy comes to the car from an external source in a usable form and is stored onboard.

The problem is that the energy storage weighs more and both 'charging' it and getting that 'charge' of compressed air to the wheels are much less efficient. Air heats up when compressed (which both limits the storage and costs energy that will leak out of the car as the tank cools,) and then cools when it expands (robbing more energy, though making for simple air conditioning.)

If there were massive natural sources of compressed air, it might make sense, but as it is their quick charge has stations are going to be using grid power to compress the air, making the compressed air car a close relative of the hydrogen car running off of electrolysis sourced hydrogen - both functional solutions that can work and are potentially low emissions - but both far less efficient than just using the electricity in a modern electric car in the first place.

(And both more dangerous in a crash situation, if safety systems aren't up to the task.)
Walter

Good comparision to the hydrogen fuel cell cars. Both hydrogen and compressed air are poor energy carriers.
 
Neglecting the energy issues to obtain it, I wonder how dry ice would perform as a source of compressed air? The expansion of CO2 is staggering. Of course, there also are, inter alia, the niggling problems of (1) strength (=weight) of the vessel needed to hold the CO2 in its solid state untili needed, and (2) the motive force being that gas:cursing: as well. But as a theoretical energy battery, it seems interesting.
 
Neglecting the energy issues to obtain it, I wonder how dry ice would perform as a source of compressed air? The expansion of CO2 is staggering. Of course, there also are, inter alia, the niggling problems of (1) strength (=weight) of the vessel needed to hold the CO2 in its solid state untili needed, and (2) the motive force being that gas:cursing: as well. But as a theoretical energy battery, it seems interesting.

Neglegcting the energy issues to obtain it, there are many very promosing fuels and propulsion methods :)

Agree though it'd be cool to fill up with a block of smoking dry ice.
 
Regarding dry ice production, I did a Google query and followed the first link there, so I'm obviously an expert on the subject now... :)

It sounds like the source CO2 is generally produced as a by-product of the refining oil. If so, since that CO2 is already getting produced, is that really harming the environment any more than what is already being done? Instead of just directly releasing the CO2, they freezing it, then releasing it at a later time. Any vehicle powered like this wouldn't be able to be parked in a garage just because the gas that would be given off as the dry ice sublimates, but on the surface, this isn't making the situation any worse than it already is.