Air Powered Car

[Queso]

That's right you heard me DIG IT:

 

http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/315

 

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 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.

[Boerseun]

Yep - seen it, and it looks very promising.

 

However, I doubt that this will be available in most Western countries.

 

Hydrogen fuel, as an alternative, has been rendered safe for use in vehicles when the flow of hydrogen is moderated through a fuel cell, which slows the flow of gas down in case of an accidental rupture.

 

However, in using compressed air, in order to have enough air available at a high enough pressure, you'll need fair-sized gas bottles which are heavy, made of metal, and full of air under very high pressure - which will violently explode in case of an accidental rupture, which seems fairly likely in the face of car accident occurence.

 

In the Third World, I guess they won't give a rip in most cases. But you should see some pretty impressive and rubberneck-worthy accidents in the streets of Delhi when gas bottles under quite a few psi's explode in tiny cars.

[Queso]

hahaha wow I can't wait!

 

:xx: