A company named Zero Pollution Motors says it plans to bring a car powered by air to the U.S. sometime in 2009 or 2010.
The six pistons in the Air Car's engine are pushed by compressed air rather than petrol combustion, an idea developed by F1 race car engineer Guy Negre. The car carries a compressor, making it possible to fill its compressed air tank by plugging it into an electrical outlet. At low speeds, the engine is cranked solely by air from the tank. At high speeds, it uses petrol to heat a chamber, giving the air pushing the pistons more pressure.
In high speed mode, it also compresses air to inject into the cylinders. According to its initial, estimated, specifications the Air Car will go 1365km on an 30 litre tank of petrol -- that's 2.2L/100km, by the way. The size of the compressed air tank isn't included in the specifications. Further, the car has a claimed top speed of 155km/h, with its power plant putting out 56kW. When traveling at low speeds, the car has zero emissions, while in high speed mode it has some emissions because of its use of petrol.
The Air Car was developed by The MDI Group, which received funding from Indian car maker Tata Motors to build the car for the Indian market, while Zero Pollution Motors intends to market the Air Car in the U.S. The body of the car is made from fiberglass and foam, and is built as a six seater. Instead of the usual analogue-style speedometer and tachometer for displaying speed and engine revolutions, respectively, in the dashboard, the Air Car will have an in-dash computer with these displays instead. This dashboard computer will also be used for navigation, media playback, and communication. Though the Air Car sounds promising, we're eagerly awaiting to see if it really lives up to its specifications.
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pete
28/02/2008 12:38 PM
Zero emmisions in low speed??? How about the power that was needed to make the air compressed? How much power is needed to fill the tank that effectively gives the car it's power (energy).
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zioks
03/03/2008 10:05 AM
Well if the car had battery bank it could be zero emissions.
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Mattmec
04/03/2008 08:51 AM
The car will not be emission free, in fact the emission will be greater when the emission costs of compressing air is taken into account. It is just not possible to gain something from nothing. Ex Compressed Air Engineer Mattmec.
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bash0
04/03/2008 03:12 PM
yeah agreed with engineer, air will be compressed via wall outlet which runs on coal fired power stations.. just a workaround really, although coal is a lot cheaper than oil still but nevertheless CO2 is emitted.
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beneuto
04/03/2008 05:02 PM
Agree with above comments but for weight and cosmetic reasons it is better to put some solar panels on the roof of the house to offset at least some of the electricity requirements for the car.
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jfmays
30/05/2008 06:33 AM
The car itself is emission-free during operation. The energy required to fill the tanks produces emissions, but in one spot that that is easier to control. When you count the emissions of a gasoline powered vehicle, do you include the emissions of the petroleum refining process to produce the gasoline? I'm guessing the answer is "no".
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tomo
24/10/2008 11:40 AM
I love the Na sayers Take a look at the General Compression web site. Link below. http://www.generalcompression.com/what-we-do/wind_brochure.pdf Take a look at the newest technology. The air platform (as a fuel) is the way of the future. The costs will be 1/10 the cost of Solar and the harm to the enviroment (Lithion Ion Batterys only good for 1000 charges and to produce solar cells they are extremely harmful to the enviroment)
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