http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/ Engadget Comments for Indian air-powered City Cat car prepares for production run http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
The GM Sequel isn't far behind. It is also an electric car with wheel-mounted independent motors. Rather than fossil fuels, this car uses a hydrogen-fuel-cell power plant to generate electricity, which emits only pure water. To reuse Luke's quote from above, "Nuclear Power + Water Hydrolysis + This Car = Win."

Both are able to be plugged in to charge, and the Volt will eventually also be offered in a fuel-cell version. GM's actually way ahead of the game where next-generation power plants are concerned, especially with fuel-cell technology.]]>May 27th 2007 8:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
To your question - No. The car you saw on the Discovery Channel's 'Future Cars' mini-series was completely different. Nice to know, though, that more than one group is working on this concept, isn't it?]]>May 28th 2007 8:41AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
see this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjSOvbsE460]]>May 27th 2007 11:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/ What most people don't know is that hybrids are more dangerous then they think. The chemicals and earth metals used in the battery can be extremely harmful not to mention explosive when mixed with gas. I remember my mechanics teacher at my high school saying that the police, medical and fire workers can't go near you with out special training an equipment.]]>May 29th 2007 2:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
When will people learn that burning a ton of gas to produce a more efficient vehicle probably still yields the same net emissions. I'm looking at you, E85.]]>May 27th 2007 7:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/Aug 20th 2007 11:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
The only problem is the morons who emotionally react against clean, efficient, and safe nuclear power.]]>May 27th 2007 7:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
A lot of air compressors are gas powered, and even those which run on "good 'ol electricity" are powered by coal/gas/nuclear or whatever the power station its connected to is running on!

"I think this article also misses one big point - most people are more interested in eliminating the need for gasoline rather than be 10000% green. Baby steps, right?"

I think you're missing the point. Eliminating the need for gasoline is easy- there are loads of "green" energy storage options such as batteries, hydrogen/fuel cells, ultracapacitors and of course compressed air. The problem is that these only provide energy STORAGE. If you start using one of these without becoming "10000% green" then all you're doing is moving the problem to an increased demand for power generation, which doesn't solve anything.

There isn't anywhere near enough "green" power to run all our domestic demands as they are, let alone were everyone to connect their car to the grid! Growth in this area is slow due to the cost/size per megawatt and reliability (with the exception of hydro, which since it tends to require damming which has massive local environmental impact isn't terribly "green", most are intermittent in nature) being far inferior to conventional "polluting" options.

To those who think they could power this with a fan- I'd only recommend it while you're trying to slow down anyway, since that's what this will do. It's thermodynamics- you'll consume more compressed gas to overcome the extra drag than you could ever extract from it. To extract energy when slowing down anyway it'd be much more efficient to take it from the wheels.]]>May 28th 2007 4:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
I put it to the author to design a less fugly car. If it was designed by a professional, experienced engineer, it's most likely that 'form follows function'.

Also, you have to consider that it's being made for Indians. ]]>May 27th 2007 7:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 7:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 11:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
Electric cars are cheap compared to this and their fuel is even cheaper than this air car. Hydrogen is currently created via gasoline emissions and it would take years and millions more dollars setting up solar gas stations for hydrogen conversion.

Just think about this; hydrogen cars operate as thus. Hydrogen ---> Electricity to power motor ---> water emission.

Electric cars operate like this. Electricity to power car ---> no emissions.

If they had simply thrown batteries in, let you plug it in at night, you would get the same, if not more mileage and only pay 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour.]]>May 28th 2007 12:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
Fuel cell vehicles cost nowhere near 1 million dollars, even in their current prototype state.

The production Chevrolet Volt will be affordable, and GM has stated that they're willing to sell it at a loss to do so.

Electric cars have two problems: range and performance. Both of these problems are addressed by having a power plant on board. The Volt uses a gasoline generator, and the Sequel uses a Fuel Cell generator.

The Sequel is considered a zero-emission vehicle, just like an electric with no power plant. Pure water emissions are not harmful, and could even be beneficial.

Both of the GM vehicles have batteries, and allow you to plug them in, so that their onboard power plant will operate only when necessary.

The vast majority of residential electricity in the US is created by burning fossil fuels. If you charge a plug-in hybrid or an electric vehicle with no power plant, you're still requiring that coal, oil, or natural gas be burned somewhere else.]]>May 28th 2007 1:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 8:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 6:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
tchiseen - "Also, you have to consider that it's being made for Indians." What the f*&^?!k is that supposed to mean? What are Indians blind!]]>May 27th 2007 9:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
So you guys can stop clicking the little minus button for that guy's post now, it probably wasn't meant to be offensive.]]>May 28th 2007 7:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
search in youtube pal ;)]]>May 27th 2007 9:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 9:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
My damn uncle owns one in India and it pisses me off whenever we ride in it.]]>May 27th 2007 10:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/*ffffart* *shhhhh*]]>May 27th 2007 11:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 11:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 29th 2007 2:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 27th 2007 11:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 29th 2007 7:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
The Curry is actually a nice name. Have some sense of humor.

This car is a good idea for India. This will reduce the pollution in the cities where people live. Also I think the cost of owning will be less than gasoline cars.]]>May 27th 2007 11:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
I mean, to some people (especially in the city), it probably wouldn't mean much... but if this vehicle (or something similar with more range) where used in maybe a hilly area, then you could go for longer.

In fact, if used for extended travel, I'd imagine that if the whole process were made efficient enough, one could basically decelerate, accelerate, little by little, many times, and basically go on for nearly forever.

Of course... it wouldn't be a very smooth ride!]]>May 28th 2007 12:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
I'm talking about a design similar to the emergency wind fan thing on airplanes that they can drop down in flight in the case of catastrophic power failure (it keeps the most critical instruments running). ]]>May 28th 2007 12:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 3:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 1:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
I mean, using cheap air instead of pricey gasoline? Come on, man, even the dumbest person knows the difference about this. Who cares how it looks? It's going to be sold, big time.

And I agree with the guy who said it doesn't have to be 10000% green, but gasoline free.
http://el-cabron.blogspot.com]]>May 28th 2007 2:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
There was a special recently and they are using or trying to use compressed air to generate compressed air.

According to Mr. Nègre he's been called a kook but the technology must be advancing somehow if they are still around and haven't been debunked.

Good luck to them!]]>May 28th 2007 2:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
http://el-cabron.blogspot.com]]>May 28th 2007 2:21AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/ -paul34

Thinking about it, that wouldn't be so hard to implement, if you simply placed a duct through the length of the car in any way, design hollows maybe 2" to 4" tall by however wide the chassis allows into the floor pan, place in a furnace-style drum fan into it, gear it way down with a single big ratio sun and planetary gear to drive a compressor. I have no idea what this would do to the aerodynamic behavior of the car, the drag created and weight added may very well outweigh the gains of the usable energy you get as compressed air. But thats only needed for however long it takes to fill the tank, its easy to put shutters on the end of a duct, it might be worth it as all the pneumatic system has to do is get better efficiency than the gasoline engine that supplies its "fuel". ]]>May 28th 2007 2:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
Wow, I hope to hell you guys are either being facetious, or are under 15 because the alternative is that you are retarded. If one of the latter two, stop whatever you are doing and google "perpetual motion", right now.
]]>May 28th 2007 2:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
The main question for countries like India, China and South East Asia is cost of ownership. When I met my wife in Thailand 4 years ago she was working as a nurse in a cancer hospital with 12 years of experience and making a middle class income of $300 a month. For her a scooter was a luxury.

If these 'green' alternatives cost more than the pollution belching things on the market now, they really don't have much choice.

Unless the electricity comes from photo-voltaic or wind generators or dams (which is another major environmental challenge) it starts out from the burning of some sort of fossil fuel. Until this cycle is broken electric cars will not be such a great advantage (environmentally speaking).

Also being that BP and Shell oil are major players in the photo voltaic market your money will still be going into the same pockets for a long time to come. ]]>May 28th 2007 8:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 10:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.aspoitalia.net/documenti/bardi/eolo.html).
It seems that if pressure is very high, there will be some problem due to the fact that air will freeze; if pressure is low, there will not be much energy to move the car.
The italian factory for what was called Eolo, as the wind God, never started to produce, leaving 74 workers without work.]]>May 28th 2007 10:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
To charge up an electric car, it will cost you approximately $1-5. Depending on the batteries and type of chemistry used, you may get 100-300 miles. The electricity can come from anything, solar panels, nuclear power plants, oil or coal plants.

To fill up a tank of a hydrogen car, it will cost you approximately $20-30. It will garner about 100-200 miles, at best, until tank size or compression increases. The hydrogen will be made from burning fossil fuels or from converting solar energy into hydrogen.

Both cars have batteries, but hydrogen is harder to compress into a smaller area, resulting in an even lower range than electric cars. Currently, we have battery chemistry that now cuts the cell size in half while maintaining the same capacity. Lithium-ion polymer based batteries allow a vehicle to withstand the heat that normal lithium-ion based batteries cannot. They will also not explode while being punctured.

The lithium-ion polymer batteries also recharge to 90% in 5 minutes, and 100% in 15 total. Average kilowatt-per-hour rates are at approximately 8 cents. (Mine is 5.) If a battery has 25 Kph, it will cost you $2 to charge up in 15 minutes and only add it on to your bill at the end of the month or simply use excess energy stored from solar panels.

Electric cars do not have complex engines, they do not require oil, filters and other useless gunk attributed to gasoline engines. Hydrogen-hybrid vehicles will require this however, I'm not sure about just hydrogen based.

They both have batteries though, so look at it this way, you're either simply going to have to use electricity converted from other sources (fossil, solar, nuclear) or electricity converted from hydrogen from solar or fossil. Sounds really efficient to go that whole next step and up the cost a few hundred thousand, huh?]]>May 28th 2007 12:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 12:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
"Why not use the piston momentum from the exhaust stroke to compress exhaust gases in to a storage cylander where it could be fed back in to the engine and alow it to stop burning petrol and run on compressed gass that otherwise would be unused gas expelled from the motor?"

You clearly don't know how a 4-stroke engine works. The "piston momentum" is already "stored" in the engines flywheel and used to compress the next charge of fuel/air mixture. If you try and compress the leaving exhaust gases using the piston you increase the force back on the piston, opposing motion of the engine and reducing its efficiency. Since both the compression and running of engine on compressed gas will be much less than 100% efficient the amount of energy one could extract would be much less than the amount extra wasted in the engine.]]>May 28th 2007 3:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
As for pollution created by refuelling, it takes less than a couple of minutes. Check out the Wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_engine

Looks like many of the problems mentioned in the Wiki have been resolved.]]>May 28th 2007 1:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/May 28th 2007 2:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/27/indian-air-powered-city-cat-car-prepares-for-production-run/
I did think about that, but did not post in order to keep things simple. At this stage it's just a thought with some possible technical hurdles that could be overcome. ]]>May 28th 2007 3:05PM