Clever Car -- the future of automobiles

Tata's 1 lakh car is a beauty and getting raves:

"NEW DELHI, January 12: Just two days and the verdict is out. If the millions thronging Hall No 11 at Pragati Maidan is anything to go by, the people’s car Nano is an overwhelming hit, even before anybody outside the company has driven it. With the initial lot (250,000 units) expected to disappear even before it reaches the showroom, Tata is seriously threatening Hyundai for the number two spot in the auto industry. If the potential demand of 2 million cars is any indication, Nano is all set to sweep India, if not the world, in a very short span of time. ..."

From:
http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/260827.html

Please someone who can post other photos, especially one showing the interior, with it center located instrument group (So located as some markets drive on otherside of road and Tata is thinking long term, when there are more Nanos than any other car in the world. From photo, I guess Indian drive like the Brits on the left.)

From Kmguru's post 773 in Thread "more great economic news" :
Tata Nano

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I understand this car is a two cylinder...like the V-twin on a motorbike.

So I'm wondering how it can generate enough power to carry four people at 100 clicks???

Even the lowly Beetle was four cylinders no?

"In 1933, Adolf Hitler submitted sketches to Ferdinand Porsche of a proposed 'Volks-Wagen' a basic vehicle that should be capable of transporting two adults and three children at a speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). The People's Car would be made available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle at the time."

 

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Thats a good idea. I'll bet the price of vegetable oil in India is cheaper than diesel oil...or soon will be.

They dont have to convert it to biodiesel either, in such a hot climate.

 

Horsepower of an IC is more related to the total volume of the combustion chamber(s) not the number of cylinders. I had use of a one cylinder diesel heavy workboat once which had plenty of power and a realtively large flywheel. That was years ago, but as I recall you could release the compression to hand spin up the flywheel and then when it was rapidly spinning, seal the combustion chamber and she kicked right over (no battery problems etc.) but obviously you do not want the weight of a large fly wheel in a car.

There are two main problems with only one cyliner. One is that lack of dynamic balance (Why 2,4,6 and 8 cylinder motors in cars are common to achieve this) and the other is the need for storage of energy (in a flywheel, almost always) as it comes infrequently in four cycle ICs. (Part of why most small, one-cylinder, out board motors are two cycles as the power stroke comes twice as often.)

another photo of the Nano at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...cs/2689913.cms
Sorry I can not upload it- Perhaps you can?

Here are some specks:
* 624 cc engine
* 33HP petrol engine
* Mileage of 20 kilometers per liter
* Passed full frontal crash test, the offset and side-crash test
* Bumper to bumper length 8% shorter than Maruti 800
* Legroom is expected to be 21 pc more than Maruti 800.
* The car meets the Bharat 3 (Euro 4) emission standards.
* The car that will come in two variants - AC and non-AC
* Will come a dealer price of Rs one lakh (about $2600 US$ now, but more later as the dollar continues to lose value) plus VAT and transport charges. (presumably for the non-AC version* with cloth instead of leather seats)
* Commercial launch in mid 2008-09

Note a liter is 0.246 gallons and 1.6km = 1 mile. That is 47+ mpg (quite close to the rumored 50mpg and often reported as 50mpg.)
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*Rumor has had it for more than a year that the Nano has automatic transmission with continuously variable gear ratio. If true, and if the lowest gear is low enough, then 33 horses in that light car will have no trouble climing up any hill, even with 5, relatively large, Indians seated in it.

 

Smart Car with GSXR1000 engine

 

The lowest powered production car was probably the 1950s Fiat 500, with a 13 hp two cylinder engine.

So I guess it is possible.

Old and new versions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHTukFiw18c

 

China seems (to me) to be leading the hybrid field at the moment; See:

http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=1713635&postcount=256

(I'm avoiding double posting, but could have been here.)

Perhaps there is secret Chinese/ Indian agreement? Tata get global cheap gas car market and China get the more expensive (but still relatively low priced) hybrid global market. One thing sure is despite Mitt's promisses yesterday, Detroit is dead in a decade. I am almost sure that China has a extra, little known, advantage if Li-ion battery is best for hybrid as China is main supplier of litium to the world, I think. They can set the domestic price lower than the export price. (Not "fair" perhaps, but US sets gas price lower than rest of world to make Detroit's monsters viable and China is a managed economy for this sort of thing.)

Off point, but I am also almost sure that all tungesten comes out of China. Good thing that compact floresents are taking over as China could turn the lights out allover the world in less than a year if it chose to do so.

 

India's Tata Motors paid MDI $28 million* a year ago for the right to build and sell Tata-branded Aircars in India. MDI is shipping a prototype to Tata this summer. Tata will either reproduce that car or, more likely, install the MDI technology in one of its existing cars, such as its recently unveiled Nano. A U.S. company called Zero Pollution Motors has purchased a license from MDI to build an Aircar factory in the States.

The absence of combustion allows MDI to use a lean aluminum engine casing. MDI's engine weighs 80 pounds, a third the weight of the powerhouse in a Toyota Corolla. The fuel is air compressed to 4,350 pounds per square inch, or 300 times the pressure of the air you breathe. Negre insists that despite the enormous pressure, the tank, in a collision, would split down its sides, harmlessly expelling the air in a giant phoomp.

Now for the drawbacks. The car's limited range would require plenty of fill-ups at compressed-air service stations, except those don't exist. Drivers could fill up at home by plugging in the car's onboard compressor, but that would take four hours. The Aircar weighs only 1,873 pounds (unfueled) and might not meet the safety regulations of the U.S. Negre says he can upgrade the safety features: "If we want to be in the U.S., we will have to pass, and that's what we plan on doing."

{See full atricle & pictorial diagram of motor at: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/058.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter }
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*Hope they know what the Aircar in India is worth. - I have owned shares of TTM for years, before they announce the world's cheapest car Nano (at US$ 2500) -Bought mainly to get out of dollars and thought rapid wealth increases in India and large population would make big increase in both demand for financing (homes and cars mainly) and cars. (I own more in ADRs IBN of ICICI bank than Tata Motors. IMHO, if you are interested, the current slump in Indian stocks is a "buying opportunity" not likely to last.)

 

They just released a car that lets you know when someone is in your blind spot. Wouldn't that mean that your car was continually dinging at you???

 

Fine with ya all, but I am going with the nanotechnology as the key to the future of everything including cars assembly.

Presenting: Volkswagen Nanospyder

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A car that assembles and disseintegrates itself for many nanomachines.

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this is by the way the future I have seen and talked of

a car of nanotechnology supported by hydrogen fuel cells, solar power, wheel-mounted electric motors and inflatable organic body panels.

 

ah, just think. We try to solve all our problems by not changing what we do, but how we do it. We need something completely new, something completely fresh. What I think is funny is that we're falling into an energy crisis, but all around you there is enough energy for trillions of years, even at our skyrocketing demands and population increases. Converting one penny to energy would probably power the United States for an hour by itself. Off that tangent, how is something like that going to help us? Say every single person in the world drove one of those, and the engines were modified for 85% Ethanol. Plus, every spanking grain of biomass grown in the world is used for Ethanol. This still wouldn't solve the problem. Oil regenerates so slow, that even if we made our engines 100% efficient (which is impossible, no heat, sound, or light generated, everything that rotates in the engine weightless, and 100% lubricated with no friction etc) plus everything I stated above, oil still wouldn't regernerate fast enough. It would almost eliminate our pollution, but our oil reserves will still run dry. And what then?

 

Its too expensive for a two banger death trap.

 

Perhaps this:
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=money&vid=703d7318-e938-4d39-80a1-2013d16d0ee9 (You must endure a few seconds of comercial first.)

After dollar crash will be a luxury car for the relatively well off? (doors are extra)

 

I wonder if you could even fit a 12 pack a beer in that car in the OP.

 

Now even better than the Clever Car

http://www.aptera.com/

Clever Car used propane or natural gas. The Aptera is either all electric or hybrid electric. As a result it is fundamentally more efficient, and is built with more interior space than the Clever Car. Instead of inline seats with one being used for cargo, the Aptera has two side-by-side seats and lots of extra storage space. Combining a hybrid-electric powerplant and lightweight composite structure with a aerodynamic drag coefficient of just 0.06, the Aptera gets a minimum of 130 mpg over distances of 600+ miles. For shorter distances where electric power dominates, the energy-equivalent fuel consumption is far better, providing 300+ mpg.

The price is expected to be comparable to other plug-in hybrids, at around $30,000.