Tata Air Car MINICAT Coming to US by 2010!
TATA, India’s largest car manufacturer, has done it again! First with the World’s Cheapest Car, and now with the world’s first AIR fueled car. Our bets are on TATA for coming up with the world’s first flying car….but i guess that will be a blog post for later.
TATA is being credited with delivering the first AIR fueled automobile, titled the MINICAT, for mass production, which will hit the US in or by 2010. The MINICAT should be hitting the streets of India in late 2009, and should run about $8100 USD, or 3.5 Lakh rupees, which is not bad considering the price of gas we pay these days!
Here are some of the specs on the car:
- tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fiberglass powered by compressed air
- There are no keys - just an access card which can be read by the car from your pocket
- Its mileage is about double that of the most advanced electric car
- 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 (which should cost about 2 bucks! …that is unless the price of air goes up…)
So do you think this car will make it to the US, and if it does, will it be as popular as we think? Let us know your thoughts.
“if the cost of air goes up”! hahaha, thats hilarious… but then again, we do pay for water…
I really do hope this comes to the US cause with gas prices going the way they are, we need some kind of break! Its getting ridiculous! Either that, or build a metro rail for all the major parts of town that go into Downtown Houston, Med Center and the Galleria area.
TATA is becoming a bigger player now globally. They recently purchased Land Rover and Jaguar as well. Going to be very interesting to see where they go from here. Keep it up guys!
I really don’t think they will allow this car to hit the US streets. Whether we like it or not, the big oil companies run this country, and if we were totally reliant on air, then their market would crumble.
I hate to be the debby downer…but thas my two cents.
I like the car tho - very cool concept.
Lets be honest…Gas prices have been getting progressively worse and people still drive their SUVs and trucks…is cost the only reason that people don’t get hybrids?
People in the US like to live large.
Also, do you feel safe in that thing going over 60 mph?
The solution is and always has been in alternative fuels and increased supply. This will increase supply of oil and cut demand at the same time. I don’t get why Politicians make it a one or the other deal? Get the supply up and work on decreasing over all demand through technology (alternative fuels, hybrids, etc.). Supply goes down…demand goes down…and so should gas prices…right?
As much as I want this project to succeed I am disappointed at the lack of real news about it for more than a year. We should have heard announcements of new developments and breakthroughs by now but instead all we see is old news. Everyone, interested investors, and interested customers, have to have more tangible news and information flowing from MDI and Tata Motors.
Wow! Sign me up for the first one! I live way out in the country and I could still go into town and back before needing a charge. I’m just sorry I recently sold a really good air compressor. The public has to force our right to own one of these if we want one. Damn the oil industry.
I’ll be one of the first in line to buy one. What more could most anyone want, a car that runs on air and could potentially be recharged using solar. Its good to see technologies like the Volt and other cars coming out but this is even better IMHO.
The dependance on foreign oil is about to end, 10 years from now the Arab States and countries like Russia won’t have a fraction of the influence they have now.
Please hurry up and get these cars on the market so we can start using our brains for more personal things. The ++++ with the OPEC oil, car moguls who have for years beat the Americans down. Who in the world would want to waste $20,000 to get to work? It’s just a CAR! When I was in high school 45 years ago they had a carburetor that got 50 miles to the gallon. You guessed it! The oil & car companies gobbled the patient up.
Put me on a list also. Now how about Ta Ta motors from India? How come our government is holding those people down? You guessed it, the car manufactures. It’s time to move on. I tried to buy one of Ta Ta’s cars last year and they could not sell me one. What’s up with that? Just hurry up and get these cars on the market. It would help with our unemployment, wouldn’t that put some of our people together, building factories in America an all the sub companies to manufacture the parts.
Sam
Fill the air car with natural gas and enhance the air engine….. an engine with computer controlled valves could be a combustion engine, air engine, and an air compressor. Decompress the Nat Gas to start the car and then run in combustion mode; short bursts of air engine operation when the depresurized Nat Gas reserve is low. Braking would include running the engine as a compressor; requires a spare air only tank.
Let us all be sensible. Air car is of the immediate future. Obama can change the specs. of Autos made in USA to be made by gluing parts rather than being welded, in fact many BOND strength of glued parts far surpass welded bond strength. Yet, Air cars can be made with welded parts. However, it up to the Big 3 to take up the challenge. Infra structure already exists in their factories. With small modication only in their Engine plant conversion from fosil fuel to air car engine, every thing else is vertually the same. So let the love affair with OIL Barons end. Jobs can be saved, and almost all will be content ven the Union leaders of B-3
Obama won the elections with one word “CHANGE” , amongst others. Let the automotive industry also see the “CHANGE” from OIL to AIR.
How can I buy one? This is a greatcvidea. Too bad our American Car companies couldn’t come up with this idea.
Sue
Big Oil does run America, but they are running out of product! Solar Wave, Wind, Hydro, Tidal and Geothermal power will soon take over!They are renewable = perpetual. Nuclear is one engineering mistake away from catastrophe, non renewable, and Nimby wastes prone, and is therefore an unlikely candidate. The ‘Tipping Point” for oil to lose favor, for the consumer, who really rules, is about $6.00 a gallon for gasoline, $8.00 gallon for diesel, but if Iraq, and parts of Russia don’t start shipping soon, and OPEC keeps jacking the price, oil will go up as it runs out. This will leave a huge market open for Air cars, battery cars, any ultra-light two seater carbon fiber commuter cars, and a host of three wheeled, and two wheeled high MPG hybrid machines. If OPEC is telling the truth, and we have no proof one way or the other, we have about five years of “cheap oil” left, then shortages that will grind America to a halt, and play with the American psyche even more than the (GRD) great republican depression will. Change is here, like it or not!
Mealer American Motors Corporation aka Mealer Companies LLC
is where it is at. This is kinda cute, but otherwise a good golf cart replacement.
I would like to get the specifications on this car. Compressed air storage Capacity, and miles driven between the full air charge.Has it air-conditioning and heating capability etc.