Tata Motor’s “Air Car” – now in 2nd phase of Development

World’s first Air car may be on its way in the coming years.  As discussed earlier, Tata Motors had signed a license agreement in Jan 2007 with Motor Development International (Luxembourg) to use their Compressed air technology to power the cars.

Now a press release from Tata Motors says the first phase (proof of the technical concept in Tata Motors vehicles) has been completed successfully.  Now the second phase in underway – (completing detailed development of the compressed air engine into specific vehicle and stationary applications).

In the coming years, the company hopes to come out with a car based on compressed air.

As per the experts, however, there are issues with an “Air Car” concept.

As Jesse Emspak of Discovery News points out, compressed air engines can only power a car at speeds of about 30 to 35 miles per hour, meaning they would need to be powered by an onboard electric or gas air compressor.

Another issue is range and the amount of air that can be stored in a single tank. The tanks themselves would need to be extremely strong and filling them could take hours at a time.

It is hoped that if a company like Tata Motors in India has announced their willingness to go forward, they would have at least looked into all these challenges pretty seriously.  However, one does wonder, if speeds of over 35 miles are indeed required on most of the Indian city roads?  So this car may actually be a very good product for the Indian conditions!