Car of the air becomes a a reality

Several decades old idea of ​​the car that runs on compressed air is slowly becoming a reality. Tata Motors, the largest Indian car manufacturer has teamed with the MDI group based in southern France. The goal is to offer air-powered car in the price range Dacia Logan.

A little over a month, an Indian manufacturer has entered into a contract in collaboration with MDI, which is engaged in the development of the engine "on air" and their implementation in everyday life.Although it is assumed that Dad would not take the production of vehicles developed by MDI's can be expected that Indians will try to take advantage of recent technological developments centered around two ideas.

The first is the principle of single-fuel engines run one type of fuel - compressed air, and the otherdual-fuel, which combines two sources of energy, gasoline and compressed air, thus accommodating a wider range of tasks.

MDI is the owner of a number of patents registered in over 120 countries and currently employs around 60 staff, of which about thirty engineers.Technology is experiencing the rise of the early 1990s, immediately after its foundation, when Guy Negre has developed the first dual-fuel engine that can be powered by gasoline and compressed air.

One of the main features of these engines is thepiston mechanism design , namely rods, in which over 70% of the time of rotation of the crankshaft retains the piston in GMT (top dead center), long enough to generate adequate pressure, even at higher revs. The second link is the engine compressed air tank made of composite plastic with carbon fiber reinforcements, such as in the case of natural gas tanks in CNG vehicles.

Air pressure is about 272 bar, up to 300 bar, and container to the respective bottlers may be charged in about three minutes. Keep in mind that this means about 90 "cc" the stored air. There is no reason for concern about safety because the tank monitoring is done Airbus. Otherwise, such a vehicle would have a radius of movement of about 200 km.

Since the speed of 50 km / h using only air, and at higher petrol tank, it is clear that the degree of pollution in urban driving considerably less than the "ordinary" cars. Furthermore, the "air" engine does not use special lubricating oil, plain liter is enough oil for households with rhythm changes of 50,000 km. MDI is expected to cost production car should be around 6,800 euros.

MDI does not stop there, but plans are cheaper and therefore simpler model. OneCAT (picture below) would be produced in two versions. A weaker version weighs 320 kg and it starts engine 15 hp, while the other 60 kg heavier and 7 bhp more powerful. The maximum speed of 3.4 meter long car was 90 or 110 km / h and a cruising range of 100 km in the "air" mode and 800 km in the bi-energy performances.