BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.
This is the second time in two days that Tata Motors has come to my attention. The first is here. There's something goin' on with that outfit, and it may be good...at the very least, when you toodle off in this little jet, you can wave at your friends and say "Tata, Ducks".
The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.
I think we can get the price of a fill-up even lower than that if we can harness the waste of good air between the ears of wingnut pundits and politicians, just gotta filter out the poisonous contaminants. Might run the heater as well.
I see no reason this won't work. I've got a toolbox full of air-powered tools that work just fine. There's nothing electrical to burn out, no sparks or volatile fuel to catch fire, no carbon and other by-products of combustion to foul the air or contaminate the motor oil, and the exhaust is just air.
There's no single, all-purpose answer to oil dependence, climate change, and greenhouse gas emissions, but the air-powered car sounds like it could be a good part of the solution.
What really has to happen is awareness and a change of habit, mindset, and lifestyle for all of us. For instance, in my case, to offset the devastating whirring of an air-powered device I think I'll hook up a real-time fast-reaction digital loop of an open pipe 40-inch Triumph to the accelerator (air pedal?)...the neighbors'll love it!
And when folks ask "Whatcha drivin'?", you can say "Blow job. Tata..."
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