I’ve got to admit that when I first came across this story in Britain’s Car Magazine I immediately dismissed it. After all, it was in the April issue, and I figured it was just another April Fool’s joke. But in the last week I decided to go on the internet (where we know that everything you read is the absolute truth) and check it out.

What it is if you missed it, is that Tata Motors of India has invested $30 million in Moteur Development International, a company owned by Frenchman and former Formula 1 engineer Guy Nègre, to help develop the air-car which they’ve been working on for the past 15 years.

Tata Nano

Perhaps you’ve never heard of Nègere or Moteur Development International. But by now you’ve surely heard of Tata Motors. For those of you who’ve been living living under an automotive news rock, Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues of $5.5 billion in the model year ending 2006. Lest you think, “So what impact does an Indian auto manufacturer have on me?” keep in mind that in the past few months: Tata Motors purchased Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company for $2.3 billion. In cash.

And at this year’s Geneva Motor Show they introduced the Nano, or People’s Car, which will be launched later this year and sell for about Rs.100,000—one hundred thousand rupees, which translates to about $2,500 good old American dollars. This is for a car, folks, not a scooter or glorified motorcycle.

So you can probably bet that, to paraphrase a 1957 news commentator’s remark about General Motors, “When Tata sneezes, the Indian economy says Gesundheit!”

They’re big and getting bigger. And they didn’t get where they are by making dumb, $30 million blunders. As it turns out, the story on the compressed air car wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke after all.

Compressed Air Car

Right now the launch of the car has been officially delayed. It was originally planned to be introduced in India sometime this year, but that has now been changed, and it should bow in France sometime late this year or early next year. When it does go on sale, it’s expected to have a range of about 125 miles and a top speed of 68 miles per hour, running on scuba-type air tanks which can easily be refilled at the local service station, or by plugging into the car’s on-board compressor. An electric or small internal combustion engine could help extend the car’s range.

Although the technology’s not without its problems—hence the delay—it certainly seems like something worth pursuing. After all, it’s not as likely that we’ll run out of air as we surely will eventually run out of oil. Corn? Not a likely oil substitute now that we’ve seen what its use as a fuel can do to food prices. Then there’s the recent Dilbert cartoon where the pointy-haired boss announced that the company’s alternative fuel division has found a way to turn fresh water into fuel. What a concept!

No, it seems from here that either air or solar power will be what our grandchildren and their grandchildren will be fueling up on someday. As long as we can keep oil-loving, pointy-haired-boss types from running (or is that ruining?) the world.