Air Cars: A New Wind for America's Roads?

This one has been discussed quite a few times here already. I did a search for you:

- Google Search

Tom

 

It just showed up in Yahoo as the current featured story. They are reporting a range of 60 miles with max speed of 35 mph.

 

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It makes perfect sense. Instead of internal combustion, it uses air pressure. It's basically the reverse of an air compressor. As far as efficiency goes, it's probably less efficient than electric because compressing air in the first place consumes A LOT of energy. However, it might be able to store more energy than a battery, and unlike a battery, it doesn't lose it's charge over time. I'm curious though about temperature (air expands and contracts significantly with changes in temperature) and energy loss due to adiabatic expansion. Studies will have to be done on that. "Fill the air tank in Canada and then drive down to Arizona - it works great!"
Be skeptical of the filling stations that say "we're only open from 2pm to 3pm." And go for the bargains that say "we open at 6am."
Regardless of temp, pressure is pressure; however the number of moles of air (what they are selling you) will be markedly different.
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http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106040/Air-Cars:-A-New-Wind-for-America%27s-Roads

"A new carmaker has a plan for cheap, environmentally friendly cars to be built all over the countryAn air-powered car? It may be available sooner than you think at a price tag that will hardly be a budget buster. The vehicle may not run like a speed racer on back road highways, but developer Zero Pollution Motors is betting consumers will be willing to fork over $20,000 for a vehicle that can motor around all day on nothing but air and a splash of salad oil, alcohol or possibly a pint of gasoline.

The expertise needed to build a compressed air car, or CAV, is not rocket science, either. Years-old, off-the-shelf technology uses compressed air to drive old-fashioned car engine pistons instead of combusting gas or diesel fuel to create a burst of air to do the same thing. Indian carmaker Tata has no qualms about the technology. It has already bought the rights to make the car for the huge Indian market.
The air car can tool along at a top speed of 35 mph for some 60 miles or so on a tank of compressed air, a sufficient distance for 80% of consumers to commute to work and back and complete daily chores.
On highways, the CAV can cruise at interstate speeds for nearly 800 miles with a small motor that compresses outside air to keep the tank filled. The motor isn't finicky about fuel. It will burn gasoline or diesel as well as biodiesel, ethanol or vegetable oil.
This car leaves the highest-mpg vehicles you can buy right now in the dust. Even if it used only regular gasoline, the air car would average 106 mpg, more than double today's fuel sipping champ, the Toyota Prius. The air tank also can be refilled when it's not in use by being plugged into a wall socket and recharged with electricity as the motor compresses air.
Automakers aren't quite ready yet to gear up huge assembly line operations churning out air cars or set up glitzy dealer showrooms where you can ooh and aah over the color or style. But the vehicles will be built in factories that will make up to 8,000 vehicles a year, likely starting in 2011, and be sold directly to consumers.
There will be plants in nearly every state, based on the number of drivers in the state. California will have as many as 17 air car manufacturing plants, and there'll be around 12 in Florida, eight in New York, four in Georgia, while two in Connecticut will serve that state and Rhode Island.
The technology goes back decades, but is coming together courtesy of two converging forces. First, new laws are likely to be enacted in a few years that will limit carbon dioxide emissions and force automakers to develop ultra-high mileage cars and those that emit minuscule amounts of or no gases linked with global warming. Plug-in electric hybrids will slash these emissions, but they'll be pricey at around $40,000 each and require some changes in infrastructure -- such as widespread recharge stations -- to be practical. Fuel cells that burn hydrogen to produce only water vapor still face daunting technical challenges.
Second, the relatively high cost of gas has expedited the air car's development. Yes, pump prices have plunged since July from record levels, but remain way higher than just a few years ago and continue to take a bite out of disposable income. Refiners will face carbon emission restraints, too, and steeply higher costs will be passed along at the pump.
Tata doesn't plan to produce the cars in the U.S. Instead, it plans to charge $15 million for the rights to the technology, a fully built turnkey auto assembly plant, tools, machinery, training and rights to use trademarks.
The CAV has a big hurdle: proving it can pass federal crash tests. Shiva Vencat, president and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors, says he's not worried. "The requirements can be modeled [on a computer] before anything is built and adjusted to ensure that the cars will pass" the crash tests. Vencat also is a vice president of MDI Inc., a French company that developed the air car.
The inventor of this technology is Mr. Guy Negre, who is the founder and CEO of MDI SA, a company headquartered in Luxembourg with its R and D in Nice, France.
Copyrighted, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc."

 

In the configuration shown, there will be serious visibility issues; kind of like
peering out of the ports in a bathyscaph/deep submergence vehicle.

Which is the front of this vehicle? I'm thinking it's the end with the two
exposed wheels... but then maybe those are headlights on the other end.

So what's under the other end? If it's a single wheel, this isn't a car at all. As
a three wheeler, it would be considered a motorcycle for the purposes of
crashworthyness, etc. IIRC, it would still be regulated as a motorcycle if it has
two wheels that are no more than 11 inches apart. In either case, meeting the
applicable regs shouldn't be difficult.

I wonder what the working pressure of the air flask/tank is. Given the small
volume inside the vehicle for air storage, the claims for sustained top speed
and range seem unrealistic.

 

Some state allow 3-wheel cars.

I have been excited about this since I saw it on the Green channel.

I hope it is available soon.