Linda has been writing about the production of an air car as early as 2008. Earlier this week, I received an email from a friend (since Linda is still away) that just seems ideal for a post here at Forcedgreen. So… while our hover cars might not make it to the assembly line, see what I received regarding the upcoming (potential? real?) production of the Air Car out of India:
Tata Motors in India is ready to introduce Air Car. Will it be the next big thing? Tata Motors is taking giant strides and making history for itself. First the Land Rover/Jaguar deal, then the world’s cheapest car, and now it is also set to introduce the car that runs on compressed air.
Air Car Production Can’t Come Soon Enough
With spiraling fuel prices it is about time we heard some breakthrough!
India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle.
The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. for Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. Some 6000 zero-emissions Air Cars are scheduled to hit Indian streets by August 2011.
Air Car Costs
The Air Car, called the “MiniCAT” could cost around Rs. 3,475,225 (US $8,177.00) in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels.
The cost of a refill would be about Rs. 85 (US $2.00)
The MiniCAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued, not welded, and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators, etc.
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 (about a tenth that of a petrol car). Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car (200 to 300 km or 10 hours of driving), a factor which makes a perfect choice in cities where 80% of motorists drive at less than 60 Km. The car has a top speed of 105 Kmph.
Refilling the car will, once the market develops, take place at adapted petrol stations to administer compressed air. In two or three minutes, and at a cost of approximately 100 rupees, the air car will be ready to go another 200-300 kilometers.
The leaves are starting to turn and fall. A gentle wind catches and sails them across a dusty road, so calmingly beautiful. Gratitude is the dominate feeling, a little R&R from the normal stress of life we put upon ourselves. (more…)
For The Preservation And Conservation Of Our World – Peace And Honesty Are The Most Vital Ingredients
Green Means: First, DO NO HARM! was a Forced Green post from September, 2009 concerning the intentional destruction of two radio station towers in Washington state by a group of environmental terrorist. Now fast forward to last week, a man walked into the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Maryland, held three people hostage face down on the floor. For hours he made repeated threats to kill them and finally, after he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at one of them, SWAT shot and killed him. He harbored a grudge against Discovery, viewing the network as a purveyor of ideas he considered environmentally destructive and believed that humanity had polluted the planet and that human reproduction was the worst pollutant in giving birth to their “parasitic” babies. (more…)
A Norwegian-American Woman’s Legacy To Our Green Future
Founded in 1889, the story of Foss Maritime based out of Seattle, Washington, is a quintessential example of the American Dream: Thea Foss, a young Norwegian immigrant and her husband, Andrew, turned one rowboat into what eventually became a world class fleet of tugboats. It started in Tacoma, Washington when Thea Foss bought a used rowboat, hoping to rent it out to help with the family’s finances. After painting it pristine white with green trim (nice foresight!), she sold the rowboat at a profit and used the money to buy several more boats. By 1904, the company boasted 10 launches, a shipyard, a 60-passenger oil powered boat, and a small rescue craft to help disabled vessels. (more…)
Want to hear something outstanding? After more than 115,000 Americans had gone on the Internet and registered their interest in the 2011 Nissan LEAF all electric car, last Tuesday (April 20), Nissan opened the reservation lines and in the first 65 hours 6,635 customers paid their $99 and signed up to reserve their zero emission car for a December delivery. Far exceeding the expectations of the company which hoped to have 25,000 reserved customers lined up by the car’s roll out in December. Better than 25% of their goal reached in hours instead of months. (more…)
On Tuesday night April 20th, in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.
Two days later on Thursday afternoon the blazing inferno of wreckage sank 5,000 feet to the bottom of the Gulf. 126 people were on board at the time of the explosion, 17 were injured, and on Friday rescuers suspended the search for the 11 people missing from the British Petroleum leased Transocean Ltd oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday the Coast Guard said crews were continuing efforts hoping to have it all “cleaned” up before the estimated shoreline arrival in nine days. They had recovered 181 barrels of an oil-and-water mixture by midday Friday, with ‘only’ about 200 barrels remaining within a 2-by-12-mile-long oil slick spreading through Gulf waters 40 miles offshore.
But by Saturday morning the Coast Guard reported the spill now covers a 20-by-20 mile area as remote vehicles found the rig capsized and lying on the sea floor about 1,500 feet northwest of the well. Oil shooting from the end of the pipe that had connected the rig to the well at the sea floor. Spewing out at a sickening rate of 42,000 gallons a day.
Forty-one years after an oil well blowout off the Santa Barbara, California coast gave rise to the environmental movement and the first Earth Day event, look how far we have come. An accident that is likely to be one of history’s worst in terms of human loss and environmental destruction.
Without a doubt, the major talk will be around the financial cost. So, let me ask you this, would the ‘cost’ have been this severe if the accident had been a blown out wind turbine rotor or a faulty solar panel? I think not. And neither do you.
Bless the fragile waters, wetlands and coastline of the Gulf of Mexico that are now is serious peril. Bless the families of the lost. Bless our world and her children.
The MiniCAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued, not welded, and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air. Microcontrollers are used in every device in the car, so one tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, indicators, etc.
Green Means: First, 
Founded in 1889, the story of Foss Maritime based out of Seattle, Washington, is a quintessential example of the American Dream: Thea Foss, a young Norwegian immigrant and her husband, Andrew, turned one rowboat into what eventually became a world class fleet of tugboats. It started in Tacoma, Washington when Thea Foss bought a used rowboat, hoping to rent it out to help with the family’s finances. After painting it pristine white with green trim (nice foresight!), she sold the rowboat at a profit and used the money to buy several more boats. By 1904, the company boasted 10 launches, a shipyard, a 60-passenger oil powered boat, and a small rescue craft to help disabled vessels. 
Want to hear something outstanding? After more than 115,000 Americans had gone on the Internet and registered their interest in the 2011 Nissan LEAF all electric car, last Tuesday (April 20), Nissan opened the reservation lines and in the first 65 hours 6,635 customers paid their $99 and signed up to reserve their zero emission car for a December delivery. Far exceeding the expectations of the company which hoped to have 25,000 reserved customers lined up by the car’s roll out in December. Better than 25% of their goal reached in hours instead of months. 
On Tuesday night April 20th, in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded.
Forty-one years after an oil well blowout off the Santa Barbara, California coast gave rise to the environmental movement and the first Earth Day event, look how far we have come. An accident that is likely to be one of history’s worst in terms of human loss and environmental destruction.
