Taking eco-travel to the next level

We've heard of cars being powered by vegetable oil, ethanol, hydrogen and natural gas to name a few of those save the world type fuels. Now you can add compressed air to the mix of eco-friendly cars as well. You read that right... an air powered car. This concept car from Tata Motors, the AirPod, is still in its testing phase but it is hard to ignore what is trying to be achieved here.

The AirPod, built in collaboration with the Luxembourg based company MDI (which has been working on the technology for years), is powered by compressed air which is fed into the car's tanks using either an electric engine or a charging station and can run to a top speed of close to 70 kilometers per hour (~43MPH). Range and mileage figures are unknown at this time but by the sounds of it, a lot of work is still pending on getting them up to usable levels.

Tata's press release states, "The first phase of this programme - proof of the technical concept in Tata Motors vehicles - has now been successfully completed with the compressed air engine concept having been demonstrated in two Tata Motors vehicles."

In the second phase of the development, the two companies are working together to complete detailed development of the technology and required technical processes to industrialise a market ready product application over the coming years."

Needless to say, this is a development we will definitely keep our eyes and ears open for.

Read the complete Press Release.