What comes first into mind when you hear the phrase “environment friendly car”? I bet it’s a Prius. Well Prius has a competitor and it’s not from Japan! The new City Cat car from Tata Motors is as environmental friendly as it gets. It is NOT a hybrid car but runs on compressed air alone. Now that means ZERO emission since gasoline isn’t even used. Now that is a clean car if there ever is one. In terms of over all performance the City Cat isn’t that bad either and though it definitely won’t pass as a sports car (not just because of its speed but also because of the way it looks) with a maximum speed of 68 miles per hour it couldn’t be called slow either. It’s range is around 125 miles.

Like most cars that don’t use alternative energy sources one of the big problems is in refueling. Since City Cat uses compressed air though you can actually refuel it overnight using just a compressor. For faster refueling you will need to refuel it at “air stations”, which can be a problem if there is none in more remote areas. To solve the problem its designers are planning on making a hybrid version that will allow the car to compress air while it is traveling on fuel. It wouldn’t be as environmental friendly but it would make longer trips more feasible.

The City Cat was designed by Guy Nègre, an engineer who once built Formula One cars.