http://www.theaircar.com/

The world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N?gre, will be built by India's largest automaker, Tata Motors.

 

The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008. If the manufacturers have no surprises up their exhaust pipes the car will be practical and reasonably priced. The CityCat model will clock out at 68 mph with a driving range of 125 miles.

 

Refueling is simple and will only take a few minutes. That is, if you live nearby a gas station with custom air compressor units. The cost of a fill up is approximately $2.00. If a driver doesn't have access to a compressor station, they will be able to plug into the electrical grid and use the car's built-in compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours.

 

The compressed air technology is basically just a way of storing electrical energy without the need for costly, heavy, and occasionally toxic batteries. So, in a sense, this is an electric car. It just doesn't have an electric motor.

 

But don't let anyone tell you this is an "emissions free" vehicle. Sure, the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is air. But, chances are, fossil fuels were burned to create the electricity. In India, that mostly means coal. But the carbon emissions per mile of these things still far outdoes any gasoline car on the market.

 

Unfortunately, the streets of North America may never see the Air Car, though; it's light-weight, glued-together fiberglass construction might not do so well in our crash tests. However, that does not mean the Air car is confined to the sub-continent. N?gre has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

 

And this isn't the last we'll hear of the technology. The folks making the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low. Negre says that technology could easily squeeze a cross country trip out of one tank of gasoline.

Source.

 

Also, since the exhaust is just cool air, it can be piped back in to your vehicle for compressor free A/C. :thumbup

Excellent job by Guy Negre, and it can certainly be improved upon. My fear though is that the oil companies will find a way to thrawt all this.

I heard about this before--I think the basic principle behind the car has been around for a few years at least. For some reason it escaped notice until now. Why we're trying to mess with all that ethanol nonsense instead of improving the air car (making it powerful enough to accomodate a stronger frame, etc) is baffling.

Excellent job by Guy Negre, and it can certainly be improved upon. My fear though is that the oil companies will find a way to thrawt all this.

Not if it hits big in another country.

 

People overrate the reach of large companies anyways. The only way they can block new products is by getting the government's help.

Right now, there are huge orders for these cars in India and Germany. Yeah, safety is probably an issue on a road like the autobahn, but you're probably no less safe in one of these than on a motorcycle in the city.

That's a neat idea. If we could work on better sources for electricity, be it improving on nuclear power, or discovering cold fusion, everything will be fine and dandy and we'll all dance in fields full of flowers and cute animals.

I'm still waiting for the flying cars we were supposed to have by the year

2000.

Excellent job by Guy Negre, and it can certainly be improved upon. My fear though is that the oil companies will find a way to thrawt all this.

Not if it hits big in another country.

 

People overrate the reach of large companies anyways. The only way they can block new products is by getting the government's help.

 

 

:notworthy :notworthy