Tata motors buys Land Rover, Jaguar

Who'd have thought we'd ever see the day where an Indian automotive company buys two european luxury brands :confused:

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSHKG31236420080318?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

WOW I didn't see that coming :eek: This just shows how the economic powers of the world are shifting.

I'm curious to see how this works out. Have you seen some of the cars that Tata puts out?
The parent company tends to rub off on it's lesser divisions...............:shrug:

I think they'd have to change the name if they ever came to the US. Ta ta's is my nickname for boobies :p

Tata will also be manufacturing the Italian designed air-car from zero pollution motors. A car I'm anxious for (and will likely buy). I anticipate other larger manufacturers to take queues from the air as energy prices soar for several reasons:

1) No batteries to throw away (energy is stored as compressed air instead of electricity)
2) est. 200-mile range on air alone (top speed is estimated to be 96mph...more than enough)
3) 8 gallon fuel tank...when using gasoline with compressed air (for very long trips)achieves 106mpg fuel
4 economy
4) Gasoline is optional...if service stations install high powered air stations you can refill your air tanks in about 3 minutes (making the need to gas up irrelevant...or maybe just supplementary if you're going to be going more than 200miles).

Tata motors might be a force to be reckoned with in 7-8 years.

Tata will also be manufacturing the Italian designed air-car from zero pollution motors. A car I'm anxious for (and will likely buy). I anticipate other larger manufacturers to take queues from the air as energy prices soar for several reasons:

1) No batteries to throw away (energy is stored as compressed air instead of electricity)
2) est. 200-mile range on air alone (top speed is estimated to be 96mph...more than enough)
3) 8 gallon fuel tank...when using gasoline with compressed air (for very long trips)achieves 106mpg fuel
4 economy
4) Gasoline is optional...if service stations install high powered air stations you can refill your air tanks in about 3 minutes (making the need to gas up irrelevant...or maybe just supplementary if you're going to be going more than 200miles).

Tata motors might be a force to be reckoned with in 7-8 years.

I will fully admit that I haven't studdied using compressed air to power cars, but in my scuba diving experience, I know a bit about highly compressed air. To make compressed air a viable in a packaging sense, they would have to use HIghly compressed air. My guess would be around 10,000psi. A typical scuba tank will hold 80-100 cubic feet of air at between 3000 and 4000psi. The process of filling those tanks takes time and produces a lot of heat. Enough that the tanks are usually cooled in vats of chilled water while they are being filled and when filled, the tanks are heavy. (yes, compressed air weighs a lot) Additionally the tanks have to be periodically inspected for integrity. I will be really shocked if they can build a compressed air tank that will be able to hold enough energy, be small enough, light enough, and get past all the obvious safety issues.

A lot of your concerns are addressed in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

For one, the air tanks are made of carbon fiber...so when filling them the heat is not so much an issue. Additionally, in an accidne tthe fiber will split and the air will spill out, unlike if they were made of steel or some other meta.

Tata will also be manufacturing the Italian designed air-car from zero pollution motors. A car I'm anxious for (and will likely buy). I anticipate other larger manufacturers to take queues from the air as energy prices soar for several reasons:

1) No batteries to throw away (energy is stored as compressed air instead of electricity)
2) est. 200-mile range on air alone (top speed is estimated to be 96mph...more than enough)
3) 8 gallon fuel tank...when using gasoline with compressed air (for very long trips)achieves 106mpg fuel
4 economy
4) Gasoline is optional...if service stations install high powered air stations you can refill your air tanks in about 3 minutes (making the need to gas up irrelevant...or maybe just supplementary if you're going to be going more than 200miles).

Tata motors might be a force to be reckoned with in 7-8 years.

There are some problems w/ this idea. We all know there is no such thing as free energy. It costs money to compress all that air. Building plants/machines to compress the air will cost money. I couldn't fill this up at my house b/c I don't have a giant air compressor. Gas stations don't have the proper equipment. I have a hard time thinking that we are going to see this come to fruition w/out a lot of promises being broken.

Neither brand is of any interest to me, I remember getting laid off from the BMW plant because BMW lost a ton of money when they bought Land Rover. Jaguars are the biggest pieces of garbage made, they are always having issues.

Tata means big smelly poo in Punjabi and Hindi. :p

You didn't see it coming? There has even been talk of an Indian company investing in a European exotic brand.

Hasn't this been in the works for a few months now? :p

There are some problems w/ this idea. We all know there is no such thing as free energy. It costs money to compress all that air. Building plants/machines to compress the air will cost money. I couldn't fill this up at my house b/c I don't have a giant air compressor. Gas stations don't have the proper equipment. I have a hard time thinking that we are going to see this come to fruition w/out a lot of promises being broken.

The car has an onboard compressor - takes 4 horus to fill the tanks. Of course the energy isn't free - but it's more efficient to pull energy off the grid than from an individual powerplant inside your vehicle. Compressed air is just another storage mechanism for energy - but one withotu some of the downfalls of batteries.

Gas stations didnt' have the right equipment to store E85 either until they installed it...same with hydrogen. It's a given that *ANY* new fuel/power source will require some infrastructure changes. A air compressor is a cheap, easy install.

There are some problems w/ this idea. We all know there is no such thing as free energy. It costs money to compress all that air. Building plants/machines to compress the air will cost money. I couldn't fill this up at my house b/c I don't have a giant air compressor. Gas stations don't have the proper equipment. I have a hard time thinking that we are going to see this come to fruition w/out a lot of promises being broken.

If the cars can run on both gasoline and air then you don't need huge infrastructure investments, just an air compressor at home. If you can get 100 miles on a tank of air that is all we need. The average person drives less than that every day. The only time they would need gasoline would be on road trips.

Aren't they also working on a prototype whereby after the initial tank filling the on-board compressor takes over uses its own engery to recharge the tanks. (I saw something on tv about this.)

Aren't they also working on a prototype whereby after the initial tank filling the on-board compressor takes over uses its own engery to recharge the tanks. (I saw something on tv about this.)

you plug it in and the on board compressor fills the tanks in 4 hours using $2 of electric (good for 120miles) I just found the video on it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc

At least they aren't selling it for pennies like they did with AM.

Now all they have is thier core brands and Volvo. This new product blitz had better be a pillar of clouds by day and of fire by night... Otherwise... :uhoh:

The car has an onboard compressor - takes 4 horus to fill the tanks. Of course the energy isn't free - but it's more efficient to pull energy off the grid than from an individual powerplant inside your vehicle. Compressed air is just another storage mechanism for energy - but one withotu some of the downfalls of batteries.

Gas stations didnt' have the right equipment to store E85 either until they installed it...same with hydrogen. It's a given that *ANY* new fuel/power source will require some infrastructure changes. A air compressor is a cheap, easy install.

I will give you the hydrogen infrastructure is going to cost a lot and take time but E85?:confused: Umm it is a liquid hydrocarbon, just like gas. It isn't very viscous and will eat certain types of plastics but the changeover couldn't have been very expensive.

I don't think the type of air pressure required to fill tanks w/ enough energy to power a car for 100 miles will be as cheap as you think. Add in the amount of electricity required to run those compressors (and likely the storage tanks needed to store it) and you are looking at a losing process. Sure you are spending less money directly on gasoline but you are spending the rest on all the other stuff to get a car that IMO isn't going to be worth the investment.

Using an on board compressor makes the whole process even less efficient. You will lose energy compressing the air into the tanks instead of using the energy to power the vehicle. Sure the same delima occurs w/ hybrid systems like the Volt uses but the medium of transfer is much more common and the propulsion system likely is more energy efficient.

Using an on board compressor makes the whole process even less efficient. You will lose energy compressing the air into the tanks instead of using the energy to power the vehicle. Sure the same delima occurs w/ hybrid systems like the Volt uses but the medium of transfer is much more common and the propulsion system likely is more energy efficient.

$2 of electric for 120 miles sounds good to me. :shrug:

I will give you the hydrogen infrastructure is going to cost a lot and take time but E85?:confused:

http://www.cleanfuelsohio.org/converte85.php


Robert Sicard, president of UPI Energy which opened the first E85 pump in Guelph, Ont., last January, said it costs $30,000 to convert a gas pump to handle E85 and a government incentive program would help spread them across Canada much faster, as it has done in the U.S.

Problem with compressed air like any energy storage medium is that do we get back all of what we put in? And it's energy density...

Hasn't this been in the works for a few months now? :p

Yup. No shock here.

A lot of your concerns are addressed in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

For one, the air tanks are made of carbon fiber...so when filling them the heat is not so much an issue. Additionally, in an accidne tthe fiber will split and the air will spill out, unlike if they were made of steel or some other meta.

That video is like the late 90's .com boom... Lots of marketing, no real substance... Most of the individual claims need to be questioned.

you plug it in and the on board compressor fills the tanks in 4 hours using $2 of electric (good for 120miles) I just found the video on it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qcI knew that. What I'm talking about is a "phase 2" prototype. (Saw it on a future energy show on Discovery HD several weeks ago.)

That video is like the late 90's .com boom... Lots of marketing, no real substance... Most of the individual claims need to be questioned.

Well, they've been literally driving prototypes around for a couple years. They already have an agreement to Manufacture them and they are supposed to be out within 2 years. So I guess we'll find out soon.

All I know is if i can dump $5 of electricity into my car per week instead of $40 of gasoline we have a winner.

Well, they've been literally driving prototypes around for a couple years. They already have an agreement to Manufacture them and they are supposed to be out within 2 years. So I guess we'll find out soon.

All I know is if i can dump $5 of electricity into my car per week instead of $40 of gasoline we have a winner.

Honestly you could if you started biking everywhere. Otherwise I don't think that is happening anytime soon.

$2 of electric for 120 miles sounds good to me. :shrug:

Not going to happen. You simply wont power a car off the typical 150psi a home compressor can make.

Not going to happen. You simply wont power a car off the typical 150psi a home compressor can make.

Have you read any of the information or watched the videos? 1) They are already drivable, so contiuing to doubt this is possible is a moot point. It's like saying airplanes can't fly. 2) It's not the same amount of PSI a home air compressor used for pneumatic tools and such provides - it's roughly 250 times that.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSBOM18204720080310
:)

Have you read any of the information or watched the videos? 1) They are already drivable, so contiuing to doubt this is possible is a moot point. It's like saying airplanes can't fly. 2) It's not the same amount of PSI a home air compressor used for pneumatic tools and such provides - it's roughly 250 times that.

The motor the guy developed in the video appears to be similar to the wankel. I wonder how similar they are. Rotary engine with no transmission running on compressed air, Im surprised the thing works at all.

At least they aren't selling it for pennies like they did with AM.

Now all they have is thier core brands and Volvo. This new product blitz had better be a pillar of clouds by day and of fire by night... Otherwise... :uhoh:

And Mazda...

(Majority ownership)