Date: May 15, 2008
The Air Car - more than hot air?
"My vision is a clean world, where everybody is using clean energy”. Guy Nègre´s dream seems to come true in the future. The French engine designer wants to supply the whole world with the cheapest commodity in the world – compressed air.
AIR! Can you imagine?
Ok, the idea ist not completely new. Already in 1860 compressed air was used for huge drills to build up a tunnel between France and Italy.
While in Europe they still working and testing on prototyps, India kicks it off.
Last year India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, announced to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. This summer about 6000 Air Cars are scheduled to hit the streets in India.
The Air Car uses a motor powered by compressed air. The uniqueness about the so called City Cat is its claim to offer zero emissions at the tailpipe without batteries or hydrogen fuel. Just to make it clear: Zero (0!) emissions. Even a dog has more emissions at the “pipeline”! The Air Cars can be refueled at “Air Stations”. Filling up the car’s carbon-fiber tanks with 340 liters of air takes about two minutes and costs only around $2 (!). Ok, in India that almost a monthly salary, but for us it`s like a can of beer. With a speed about 68 mph the City Cats have a range of 125 miles.
Deals have been signed to bring the Air Cars to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
So, is the CATvolution really taking over and saving the world from a climate catastrophe?! Or is it just a drop in a bucket and should we rather banish cows from the grassland?
Watch a Video about the Air Car here Images: hybridarenews.org
AIR! Can you imagine?
Ok, the idea ist not completely new. Already in 1860 compressed air was used for huge drills to build up a tunnel between France and Italy.
While in Europe they still working and testing on prototyps, India kicks it off.
Last year India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, announced to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle. This summer about 6000 Air Cars are scheduled to hit the streets in India.
The Air Car uses a motor powered by compressed air. The uniqueness about the so called City Cat is its claim to offer zero emissions at the tailpipe without batteries or hydrogen fuel. Just to make it clear: Zero (0!) emissions. Even a dog has more emissions at the “pipeline”!
Deals have been signed to bring the Air Cars to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
So, is the CATvolution really taking over and saving the world from a climate catastrophe?! Or is it just a drop in a bucket and should we rather banish cows from the grassland?
Watch a Video about the Air Car here
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Comments |
At 11:40 AM, May 16, 2008, slp said...
Great Idea. With the money of Tata it might become reality - theidea is not new. The company tried for years to realize the
production of these cars. ... but it is only zero emission,
when they use green energy to compress the air.
At 1:52 PM, May 21, 2008, Ponyboy said...
That’s the first time I hear something about the Air Cars, butwhy only now? The whole world speaks about solar energy, fuel
cells, batteries or gas. But the easiest and cleanest thing, air,
is no topic. The German automobile industry (except BMW ;-))
should be ashamed of that failure. Maybe they don’t bother to
develop this “easy” thing or there is something like that in the
pipeline, unfortunately without communicated information for
customers. I hope, this great idea will be a success story for
Tata Motors and in a few years we can see many Air Cars in our
cities... Keep it up, Karolin!
