As of now, the best transportation invention in the twenty first century!
The world’s first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by French ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, 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. Nègre 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.
Vid-1
Vid-2
Vid-3
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-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----
as if gas wasnt explosive enough. they straped air tanks to it.
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boobs now with Riboflabin"
so you drive for 125 miles, refill the air tanks for 4 hours, drive another 125 miles, spend another 4 hours refilling...
so it basically takes about 6 hours to travel 125 miles... so in the end, you basically average about 20 miles per hour. hell, you could do that on a bicycle that runs off of leg power.
interesting concept, but it still needs refining.
cannon fodder wrote:so you drive for 125 miles, refill the air tanks for 4 hours, drive another 125 miles, spend another 4 hours refilling...
so it basically takes about 6 hours to travel 125 miles... so in the end, you basically average about 20 miles per hour. hell, you could do that on a bicycle that runs off of leg power.
interesting concept, but it still needs refining.
Well, thats only if you need to plug into an electrical socket.
the only kind oif compressed air that intrests me thus far is that which comes from a turbo or a supercharger. The air car is a pretty cool idea though.
"Custom cars, custom problems."-me
Jcavi wrote:as if gas wasnt explosive enough. they straped air tanks to it.
It is no more dangerous then having gasoline in the tank. In fact, having natural air would be safer as air will not spread like the liquid form gasoline also since this engine will not get hot as shown on the vids.
cannon fodder wrote:so you drive for 125 miles, refill the air tanks for 4 hours, drive another 125 miles, spend another 4 hours refilling...
so it basically takes about 6 hours to travel 125 miles... so in the end, you basically average about 20 miles per hour. hell, you could do that on a bicycle that runs off of leg power.
interesting concept, but it still needs refining.
That is if you refill at home. If you go to a service station you will have it refilled in 3 mins. Vid 2 shows that.
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-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----
Uhm its not a oxygen car its air, not more flamible that it is outside.
05 M6 YJ GTO 1 of 447 12.767@109.93
So it works like a reverse air compressor? Kind of cool idea. I wouldn't mind driving one... well, if it was less ugly
. I like the idea that you can just hook it up to a tank at a service station and be done in 5 minutes, which is far better than an electric car's 8 hour refueling time.
if an air tank ever exploded and they also had a gas tank in the car then that would make for one hell of an explosion regardless of the type of air
^ they already thought of that.
the tanks CANT explode. they are made of carbon fiber. so they will crack instead of burst therefore bypassing the seeming danger of having the entire underside of a vehicle with compressed cannisters.
there are videos on th enet talking about air cars.
also about the 6 hours to go 125miles
i dont see how that makes any sense.
maybe if you had to go on a trip that was longer than 125 miles.
If you need to take trips 125+ miles than that isnt the market the air car is going for anyways.
In a average day i can barely reach 50 miles. therefore filling up for 4 hours would be of no signifigance because i would do it will I was getting some sleep.
and with a 125 mile range i could actually go 2 days before I plugged it in while i slept.
Creative Draft Art Media Forums
pretty neat idea....we are def going to see a huge change in cars in our lifetime
