The 'Air Car', how cool is this thing...?

Question

I hope they bring this thing to the US! It sure is ugly, but they say it can take you from LA to NY with 1 tank of petrol to refill the air tanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4

Answer 1

Around 15 grand too! So not that expensive.  Maintenance is probably easier too!

Answer 2

i do not understand y u r saying that this is sure to ugly? Its really fantastic and we have to appreciate the invention..its very good thing and the world should invent more and more such things to answer the Global warming..!

Answer 3

A sucker is born every minute.

Answer 4

Its fine its great its wonder full. ITS NOT A SAFE VEHICLE !!!

Come on guys its made of fiberglass and glued together and goes 68 miles per hr. GEZ.

Answer 5

Its OK but you still need fuel and they would just up the price of fuel to who knows how much to compensate for there loss of sales .Not only that every one would have to buy a new vehicle . They look very unsafe if you ever got into an accident

Answer 6

I think it is a revolutionary idea. Just think about it: No more spending 60 dollars a week on gas. There is also no air pollution coming out of the car because it is being ran by air and not by fuel.

Answer 7

to bad this kind of ingenuity never gets invested in. the oil companies for some reason just aren't interested in alternative energies that dont make them richer....if thats even possible anymore.

Answer 8

Compressed air is really a bad way to store energy.

In the process of compressing air, you heat it.  Then as it sits in the tank, it cools.  You have just wasted all of that heat energy, AND lost part of the air pressure, since the pressure of a gas in a fixed volume is proportional to its temperature.

Compressing air you will also have water condense... you have to deal with that water or when you try to use the compressed air, you get ice in the air lines stopping the air from flowing.

Its more efficient to charge a modern Li Poly battery, using that stored energy to run an electric motor... than to compress air and run an air-motor.

The air car will fail simply because it CAN'T become as efficient as electric power systems can.

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Using the design of his vehicle... with an electric drive instead of the air drive would go further on the same amount of gasoline.  

Note that he's got a low speed vehicle that is very light.  That's why its efficient... not because of the compressed air motor. system.

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And... the power to compress the air HAS TO COME FROM SOMEWHERE....

Using an electric compressor... the power to generate that electricity probably came from a fossil fuel power plant.

And if you listened to the whole speil about the air car... to get the 4,000 km range, you have a gasoline powered air compressor.

So its NOT a zero emissions vehicle... its emissions may be elsewhere, but they exist.

Answer 9

yea this Air Car is really cool.  I just learned about it today.  hopefully one day this car does become mainstream but i hope they will begin to use solar technology to power the air stations so it will be near 100% percent zero emissions car.

Answer 10

This is a fantasic idea!! Good for the environment and good for your pocket!!

if they could design one of these things like the modern cars we have today there would be no reason to not buy one if you were looking for a new car!! But i don't really like the look of them, so if they could be designed differently... send me over my one!!

I can't believe they are so close to being on the market!!

Answer 11

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.

Answer 12

http://www.theaircar.com

has been around for 8 years or more.

unfortunatly the storage capacity of lightweight presurised tanks safe enough to survive a car crash is not great.

and I think there must have been other technical probs to, that have prevented it getting further than a good idea.

One is that it is so "cool" that freezing could be a problem.

the other issue is it is only an energy transfer technology, not a primary source.

as such it is much more efficient well-wheel to use large scale LI-ion batteries. http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/

Answer 13

Basic laws of thermodynamics squash this idea.  Instead of directly powering drive mechanisms, the engine powers a compressor.  Energy in should equal energy out times efficiency of the system.  It is impossible to get more energy out of a system than what you put in.  A typical internal combustion engine is approximately 36% efficient.  Any gains in efficiency would add to this number, but even if all energy coming in (by combustion of fuel) was applied to moving a car forward (100% efficiency - no friction, no heat loss, etc.), it would still only get about 3 times the mileage (assuming same weight, etc.).

While the idea may work (just because the car is so light, small), it would never get approval because all of the safety features are missing.  Therefore, without tripling the weight, this car will never be seen on American streets.  This weight tripling will likely result in significantly reduced mileage and range, putting the car into a mileage category lower than the Prius because the Prius would be more efficient (capturing energy lost though braking) becaise of the inefficiency of compressing air.

Answer 14

I love this concept! I think it wold truely be  a step in the riht direction if the U.S. government approved the air car for American roads.

Answer 15

Pretty dag on cool man