Not a recent news, but a very good one, the indian car manufacturer Tata plan to produce the french MDI compressed air engine car. This is the most ambitious try-out (since the mexican contract of the mid-nineties) for the little french manufacturer. We wish them good luck, since their invention could solve a large part of the need of urban transportation in emergent countries.

To be honest, I find it ugly as sin, but the prototypes performances are promising :

The cars have the following characteristics:

* Are light weight vehicle that can reach speeds up to 220 kmph.
* MDI’s vehicle’s have fiberglass bodies which makes them light, silent urban car.
* The vehicles do not have normal speed gages. Instead, they will have a small computer screen
* Both ends of the seat belt are anchored to the vehicles floor for greater safety.
* The vehicle’s uses a patented electric system that makes the car 20 kilos lighter and considerably quieter.
* There are no keys - just an access card that can be read by the car from your pocket.
* In the single energy mode MDI cars consume around US$1.00 (Rs 45) every 60 miles (100 km).
* There is no pollution from the car.
* The vehicle’s driving range is close to twice that of the most advanced electric cars (from 200 to 180 miles (300 km) or 8 hours of operation).
* The recharging of the car will be done at gas stations in 2 to 3 minutes at a price of Rs 90, once the market is developed.
* The car also has a small compressor that can be connected to an electrical network (220V or 380V) and will recharged the tanks completely in 3 or 4 hours.
* The car’s oil (a liter of vegetable) only needs to be changed every 50,000 km.
* The temperature of the exhaust is between 0 and 15 degrees below zero and can be used for air conditioning of the car.

Even more exciting is the OneCAT model, a Mehari-like low-cost hybrid car for emergent countries, able to exit cities with a low-p

Fraser Domain
Gizmag
MDI