Tata Intends To Sell Air-Powered Car In India 398
Diggester writes "Tata Motors (an Indian car manufacturer) is changing things up with the first car to run on air, the Airpod. The Airpod's technology was originally created in France at Motor Development International but has since been bought by Tata in hopes of bringing it to the Indian consumer car market. With virtually zero emissions and at the cost of about a penny per kilometer, it is definitely one of the most environmentally and economically friendly vehicles in the world. The tank holds about 175 liters of compressed air that can be filled at special stations or by activating the on-board electric motor to suck air in from the outside. Costing about $10,000, this car could beat out most smart cars from the market." If flying cars aren't available, sucking cars seem like a nice stop-gap.
And they're going to compress the air with?? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing about the range (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an interesting idea, but they don't say anything about what that 175 liters gets you in terms of distance or power. The onboard pump is interesting (and necessary IMHO) but India's power infrastructure may not be up for the task of hundreds of thousands of cars all pumping away... if they're targeting cities, or they can get these filling stations everywhere, it might be alright.
The real problem with all these compressed air vehicles is the diabatic nature of compressing air. When you compress it, you generate a huge amount of heat that's hard to use and slows down the filling process (since the pressures are higher than normal, which will be problematic for the service station idea), but when you expand it (for power) you need to re-heat the air or else your efficiency goes way down since super-cold air doesn't have much volume. That's why they immerse SCUBA tanks in water while filling. If they figured out how to minimize that problem (maybe they use it slowly enough that it's not an issue?), they should sell a lot of them. TFA doesn't have anything suggesting that they have, though... so I'm skeptical.
Re:And they're going to compress the air with?? (Score:4, Insightful)
If this thing is a penny a kilometer, that would be 50 cents.
What's worse: Burning a gallon of gasoline -- which also has to be electrically pumped -- or just the electricity to pump. 50 cents worth of electricity, if that. (Some of that money would be filling station overhead, and not just electricity.)
Or maybe we should just give up progress until someone comes up with free unlimited energy?
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
India's poor are too busy sleeping on the street or grazing their goat at the side of the freeway to turn their noses up at anything.
Re:NEVER (Score:2, Insightful)
It's about time to throw out the old preconceptions about the rising powers of China and India. They simply aren't true any more.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe what GP means is that there is a market for this car. India's middle class alone is larger than most first world countries population.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
The not middle class half of India's population still makes for a lot of street sleepers.
Also with a per capita GDP of about 1,500 USD your definition of middle class is pretty low-end.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody's going to buy that piece of crap. It's a glorified golf cart.
And you'd be wrong. At 100+ miles to a charge, you could use it anywhere you could use a scooter.
A glorified golf cart would be all a lot of people would need. If it can go 45 mph, you can drive it on city streets.
If they could bump the speed up to 55 and extend the range a bit, it would be a lot more useful, but they'll sell at the functionality they have now.
Re:Not the first air powered car! (Score:4, Insightful)
And air pressure storage is notoriously inefficient. How does it compare to fuel cells though?
And how can it be non-polluting when some external compressor is required to compress all this air?
It seems that India is having troubles keeping the electricity flowing these days, so how do they propose to power the compressor plants?
Is this another exercise in externalizing any environmental impact, and then pronouncing your product "Green" with great fanfare?
Its a lot like electric cars in general, powered by something, just not something we sell. The pollution will be 3 states away. You don't need to worry about it.
There is no way to compress air in the quantity needed other than by using fissile and fossil fuels or wind and solar.
But we don't have enough of those to handle our houses and our factories as it is, especially in India.
Re:NEVER (Score:2, Insightful)
Half of India's population is now in the middle class.
It's about time to throw out the old preconceptions about the rising powers of China and India. They simply aren't true any more.
This is wishful thinking or tautological nonsense. India's average income is under $2k per person per year, and that's a dollar-averaged mean - the median earner makes far, far less. Maybe you're simply defining Indian middle class to be some arbitrary number like "between $500 and $5000 of annual income," but that's rather useless. Instead, let's compare this average income to the $10k cost of the car and see that the half of India's population you declare to be middle class won't be buying many of these.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
The flaw in your analysis is that you forget India Population is just well above a billion people, so even a relatively small percentage of the population is still a lot of people.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
The car (supposedly a "glorified golf cart") costs $10,000 (you can convert all the figures into rupees or euros or swiss francs if you want). If the average person makes $1500 / yr, they're probably not going to be able to afford that car, never mind a conventional one. In the west if you're in the "middle class" you usually make rather more than the price of a cheap car per year.
Re:NEVER (Score:5, Insightful)
A good point. People often ask me how my salary in Iceland compares to my last salary in the US, and my answer is usually, in short, "it's irrelevant on its own". The long answer is "it's complicated", followed by a long discussion of the different tax rates, the different compensation structures, the different benefits (company, union, and national), the different cost of living in different regards, and on and on. It's very hard to quantify. It's much easier to just say, "I live reasonably well and enjoy life" or soforth.
Re:Recycled CNN content (Score:2, Insightful)
I have no interest in defending anyone in this, but I find it funny that you're so quick to jump the gun and believe the anonymous poster is arhcangel. I could reply to a comment you made with some ridiculously inflammatory language, and I wonder how quick people would be to believe something negative about you.
Re:NEVER (Score:4, Insightful)
Well I hate to let reality get in the way of an angry rant but 68.7% of India lives on less than $2 / day and the middle class is 4% of the population.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
The disadvantages. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wikipedia already has a nice article about compressed air cars: [wikipedia.org]
-It is safe.
-Exhaust from car is zero. Electricity for compressor can be made efficient.
Disadvantage:
-compressed air is a low energy storage compared to other.
-Long storage times, you will need a compressor at home and load it for 4 hours or something like that.
-Needs heat to expand air. Might run very inefficient in cold climate. (on the plus: free airco!)
A hybrid compressed air car might be a very good option however. Notice that a traditional combustion engine is a good compressor. Maybe tata is even creating a hybrid, they licensed the tech (see wikipedia again).