Leave it to the French to come up with the zaniest automobile technologies. India's largest automaker, Tata, has just licensed from MDI in France a technology for the world's first air car. The engine runs on compressed air and electricity--and the combustible liquid fuel of your choice. This system forgoes the priciest bits of a typical gas/electric hybrid vehicle--the battery and power controller. Instead, it uses a composite compressed-air tank and some valves. The air is metered into an ingenious piston engine using matched pairs of small and large pistons. Tata hopes to use the engine in a small city car, probably weighing 1,100 pounds. Two 100-liter air tanks would provide 60 to 90 miles of city driving range. Refilling would take about two minutes at a compressed-air station. Plugging into a 220-volt electrical outlet at home or work, the tank fills in about four hours.
Source: Car and Driver
