Tata to make car having lowest running cost

Tata Motors will start producing cars running on air fuel, sometime in 2008. These are expected to deliver the lowest running cost across all passenger car segments, and could be much lower than CNG, the cheapest on-road fuel (with a running cost of a rupee per kilometre) right now. The cost of a fuel refill would be about Rs 90, and each refill is expected to deliver a distance in the range of 150-200 km.

These cars are expected to be in the same price band as the current Indica range (approximately around Rs 3.50 lakh) and will probably mirror the European variant called MiniCAT, which runs on the same engine technology. These pollution free vehicles are expected to deliver a maximum speed of up to 220 km/hour and their debut may coincide with the launch of the Rs 1-lakh car, next year.

Earlier this year, Tata Motors signed an agreement with Moteur Development International (MDI) of France to source technology to develop engines powered by compressed air. These cars were developed by Guy Negre, a former Formula One engineer, and the engines are gasoline, fuel gas, bio-diesel, liquid gas, ecological fuel, alcohol and ethanol blend compatible.

Sources add that Tata Motors could launch a limited number of these cars in India under a pilot project, which are already available in select markets in Europe and South Africa. The licence to manufacture and distribute such air-powered cars have also been sold to companies in Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and the US, apart from Tata Motors, which is the sole licensee of the technology in India.

Source