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World's First Mass Produced Air-Powered Car

Discussion in 'Other Cars' started by MarinJohn, Aug 1, 2007.

  1. MarinJohn

    MarinJohn Senior Member

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    http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive...rs/4217016.html
    World's First Air-Powered Car: Zero Emissions by Next Summer

    India’s largest automaker is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle.
    Barring any last-minute design changes on the way to production, the Air Car should be surprisingly practical. The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. Of course, the Air Car will likely never hit American shores...MDI has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.
     
    #1 MarinJohn, Aug 1, 2007
  2. chogan

    chogan New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Aug 1 2007, 12:48 PM) [snapback]488676[/snapback]</div>
    I think this was pretty thoroughly trashed in an earlier thread here. The energy cost and losses in compressing the air make it less efficient than many other forms of transport, though it's not clear whether "wheel to well" its more or less efficient than a straight gas car. The safety issues involved in carrying compressed air at at 300 atmospheres mean that either the tank is heavy or the car is unsafe. You'd be hard put to make a family car with any range as the energy density of compressed air at that pressure is about the same as lead-acid car batteries. If you compressed air up to 300 atm in "a few minutes" you'd reach some ludicrously hot temperature, absent some really powerful heat sink. So nobody here could figure out how the promised quick-recharge station would work, or, if feasible, how much it would cost to move all that heat around. And so on. But it's cheap.

    The earlier thread was here:

    http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=35523
     
    #2 chogan, Aug 1, 2007
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