A car that can run on £1 of compressed air for over one hundred miles, has a top speed of 90mph,
returns
the equivalent of 120mpg and has zero emissions will go on sale this year.
The vehicle - which will cost between £2,500 and £3,000 - is the brainchild of Guy Negre and will be brought to
market with the assistance of Tata Motors - the manufacturer that recently launched the world´s cheapest car
and
is on the verge of sealing a deal to buy Jaguar and Land Rover.
Compressed air from petrol stations can be used to fill the car´s tanks, whereupon the pressurised air is used to
move pistons. An electric motor works to increase air pressure and has to be topped up periodically.
The tanks can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes, or the vehicle can be plugged into mains
to power an onboard compressor.
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The vehicle consists of a fibreglass frame, uses its own emissions as air conditioning and could go on sale in India
and Europe as the OneCAT later this year.
Larger models have an additional fuel tank for petrol, diesel or ethanol to heat air and increase pressure for
longer journeys
Negre - a former F1 engineer - who owns the MDI factory where the models are designed and assembled - says
the
350kg vehicles are an obvious response to rising fears about climate change and the cost of petrol.
Fears about safety and a lack of weight-increasing comfort fitting in the car could pose a problem in western
markets, but Negre says there are no safety concerns, though in a crash the compressed air tanks would explode
with a tremendous bang.