For quite a long period of time, starting from 1990s, Mr. Guy Nègre was nurturing the idea of providing the world with cars, which will be environment-friendly, easy to use in urban areas, comfortable and cheap.
Finally, many years of researchs and tests gave rather positive results. An engine has been invented, which is able to answer all the above mentioned demands.
The name of the new invention is Compressed Air Technology car (CAT car), which runs with the incorporation of bi-energy - compressed air plus fuel. The engine is designed in such a way that in cities it uses only the compressed air, thus having zero-pollution results. As to the travels outside urban areas, the engine produces considerably reduced pollution.
According to the information, provided by theaircar.com, there are 3 types of air cars available: MiniCAT, MultiCAT and Road CAT. The first model is designed for city use. The specific features of this type of CAT car are that one tank of compressed air is enough for 200 km, at a cost of only 2 Euros.
The specific features of the MultiCAT are that it is a zero pollution urban transportation system, which has certain economic advantages. It consists of a Driver module and has up to 4 transport modules, (looks like a train with tyres). It has been developed with the purpose of transporting up to 135 people at a cost of only 2.5 Euros for each 100 km per module, which could become a practically free urban transport for the citizens.
As to the RoadCAT, it is designed for motorways and can travel more than 2000 km on 100 m3 of air and 50 litres of petrol, so it can be used for long journeys outside urban areas.
From the same source it turns out that the CATs vehicles use a battery suitable for electric accessories. It is refilled during the phases of braking and deceleration like during the filling of the tanks on electrical supply network. Thus, the autonomy of the vehicle isn't affected by the use of the headlights, wipers, or others electrical appliances.
One more important thing is that the outside temperature does not modify significantly the autonomy and the performances of the car. As to the question of heating in winter times, a fuel burner for heating seems to be a sensible solution to avoid such a high electrical consumption.
As far as the development and mass production of technological innovations of such kind is an expensive and labor-intensive job, Tata Motors, which is the leading automotive R&D company in India, famous for its commercial and passenger vehicles, signed an agreement of support and cooperation with MDI for the development and refinement of the technology in India.
Commenting on the agreement, Mr. Guy Negre has said, “MDI has for many years been engaged in developing environment-friendly engines. MDI is happy to conclude this agreement with Tata Motors and work together with this important and experienced industrial group to develop a new and cost-saving technology for various applications for the Indian market that meets with severe regulations for environmental protection. We are continuing the development with our own business concept of licensing car manufacturers in other parts of the world where the production is located close to the markets. We have also developed this new technology for other applications where cost competitiveness combined with respect for environmental questions has our priority.”
A production license for MDI's compressed-air vehicles has recently been signed in Nice, for markets in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama. There are now 50 fabrication and distribution licenses signed in the world, from a total of 400 available. Some of the countries that have also signed agreements with MDI include France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa, etc.
