This guy on CNN, from France talked about a air powered car...?

Question

He was very convincing saying that the byproduct of air is well air.... has anyone heard anymore about this? they said it hasnt come to the United States yet because the safety regulations here are much higher than those in France, the cars that they showed on CNN were sort of funny looking, but has anyone else heard any more about it? whats going on with it? hows it work

Answer 1

There is a Youtube video for that.  There are three compressed air tanks that are under the car.  They are made of carbon fiber so that they cannot explode in an accident.  

The way it works is, instead of an explosion pushing down a piston like a regular car, the force from the compressed air pushes the piston down.  I think the video said that they can get around 100 miles to the tank of air and that the on board compressor can fill it up in 8 hours where a high pressure air tank that is prefilled can refill the car's tanks in 3 minutes.

Answer 2

Runs on compressed air.  Range is about 20 miles at 20 miles per hour.  Air compressors take a lot of electricity to run.

Answer 3

Instead of storing the electrical energy in a battery and using it to directly power a 90% efficient electric motor, you're using the electrical energy to power an air compressor to store the compressed air in the car, which then drives a piston. When you do a mechanical process like driving a piston, you also lose energy as heat to friction.

In other words, you're better off with an electric car.

Answer 4

Actually, 7DS, the car he is referring to runs on compressed air. This car works on the same basic premise as a regular gasoline engine, but without the gas or mini explosions to move the pistons. Instead it releases the compressed air to drive the pistons. Also the fastest these cars can travel is around highway speeds which is plus or minus 50mph with a limit around 60mph.

Answer 5

yeah the air cars have alot of potential check out ConvertToAir.com they have videos that explain the entire working of the car, its rather simple too :)

Answer 6

Yes... the cars will run on water and instead of releasing noxious emissions like from gasoline the car will release H2O vapor, which is water vapor. It is real and they will be coming to the U.S. soon hopefully after some changes are made. Also, a lot of them can't go above 30 mph so that is also a reason we don't have any yet.