Car that runs on air in India soon

CAR-EFULLY MADE: The car is made of foam and fibreglass but has survived official crash tests.

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New Delhi: Here's a car to die for. The fuel bills are minimal and all at a price tag of just Rs 3,50,000.

Tata Motors and France's MDI have tied up to develop a car that runs on compressed air.

After 14 years of research and development, MDI's Chief Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the century's biggest technological advances.

It lets a car run on compressed air and Tata Motors is getting this technology home.

The car is expected to have a range of about 300 km between refuelling with each refill costing Rs 90.

The MDI Air Car can be powered by an external compressed air pump or an internal compressor running on petrol.

It would have a top speed of around 60 kmh using air alone and 200 kmh using an air and petrol combination engine.

The beauty of the car, which is made of foam and fibreglass but has survived official crash tests, is that it switches engines as you increase speed.

So it will move to the air engine at about 60 km/hr and will automatically switch to combination engine at higher speeds.