14 DAY TRIAL // We are in the middle of a dreadful global warming that could melt all the Arctic glaciers by the middle of this century. Humankind is in a struggle to find all kind of technologies reducing the emissions of greenhouse effect gases. And one of the main emitters of these gases are cars. Sun-powered cars would emit no polluting gases at all, but so far this technology has not convinced.
But now, BBC News is signaling that a French company has come with a pollution-free car functioning on compressed air. The car is produced by India's Tata Motors and, by the end of 2008, it could be bought from Europe and India.
The air-compressed car, known under the name of Mini-CAT or City Cat, would be refueled in just a few minutes from a special air compressor that can be found at the gas stations. A 1.5 Euro fill ($ 2) would allow you to go 200 km (125 mi). The new car could reach a maximum speed of 70 mph (110 km per hour) and could cost only $7000 (4,750 Euro) !
The car has a body made of fiberglass and it is endowed with an advanced electrical system being totally computer-controlled. The car's motion is determined by the expansion of compressed air. There is no fuel, no burning, no polluting gas emission. The vent gases are completely clean and cool and can be employed in the inner air conditioning system, being just air.
Tata Motors' interest in the air compressed technology is not recent; even since 2000, the company has been producing compressed gas buses. Soon, it could come out on the market with the world's cheapest car, made almost entirely of plastic and coming at a price of $ 2500 (1,700 Euro).
The company has turned into one of the wold's biggest players: in 2004, it bought the Korean Daewoo and, now, it is interested in acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover lines from Ford Motor.