Tata Intends To Sell Air-Powered Car In India

Diggester writes "Tata Motors (an Indian car manufacturer) is changing things up with the first car to run on air, the Airpod. The Airpod's technology was originally created in France at Motor Development International but has since been bought by Tata in hopes of bringing it to the Indian consumer car market. With virtually zero emissions and at the cost of about a penny per kilometer, it is definitely one of the most environmentally and economically friendly vehicles in the world. The tank holds about 175 liters of compressed air that can be filled at special stations or by activating the on-board electric motor to suck air in from the outside. Costing about $10,000, this car could beat out most smart cars from the market." If flying cars aren't available, sucking cars seem like a nice stop-gap.

Comments

Re:NEVER

[Nursie]

India's poor are too busy sleeping on the street or grazing their goat at the side of the freeway to turn their noses up at anything.

Re:NEVER

[ThatsMyNick]

I believe what GP means is that there is a market for this car. India's middle class alone is larger than most first world countries population.

Re:NEVER

[fredprado]

Now compare this with the costs of conventional cars, which they currently buy and you will see the poster you are criticizing is right. Truth is, there is a huge market in India for conventional cars, despite the low average income of its citizens, and conventional cars are more expensive than this.

The flaw in your analysis is that you forget India Population is just well above a billion people, so even a relatively small percentage of the population is still a lot of people.

Re:NEVER

[Rei]

A good point. People often ask me how my salary in Iceland compares to my last salary in the US, and my answer is usually, in short, "it's irrelevant on its own". The long answer is "it's complicated", followed by a long discussion of the different tax rates, the different compensation structures, the different benefits (company, union, and national), the different cost of living in different regards, and on and on. It's very hard to quantify. It's much easier to just say, "I live reasonably well and enjoy life" or soforth.