Why aren't the cars that run on compressed air not available in the US yet?

Question

Given our current "energy and oil crisis" why aren't more of the cars that run on compressed air (no oil required) being manufactured? They aren't even available to the US yet as I have seen. But if we are running out of oil, causing global warming, and spending over $4.00 a gallon for gas forcing millions into bankruptcy....why aren't these cars being rapidly manufactured and sold to the US? Wouldn't this elimate much of our problems?

Answer 1

It has many of the same problems as the electric car. It has limited range and power. The car itself must be very small and light. It cannot have all the luxuries that we accept as standard (climate control, radio, power seat, power mirrors, power windows etc). It is also still in major development.

Answer 2

They are still testing them and tweaking the design, from what I've read.  Basically only one company is making them...which I think is a French company that invented them.  Hopefully, they will finish the final product and get them sold worldwide very very soon!

Answer 3

Suppose you have a car with a small engine--fifty horsepower, and it's supposed to run for five hours on a compressed air 'charge.'  And surprise: you'd need a fifty horsepower air compressor running for five hours to compress enough air into the tanks to run it for another five hours.  Don't want to spend five hours at the compressor station?  Well, let's see: ten minutes is 1/30 of five hours, so you could compress all of your air into the tank in ten minutes if your compressor was powered by a 50 hp x 30 = 1500 horsepower air compressor.  I've never seen such a thing, but I'll bet it's impressive.  They don't make air compressors that big.  

So why didn't anyone explain this when they said how great the compressed-air car was?  Answer: they didn't know, and they hadn't thought it out.  No such cars are in production, but there are outfits which would like you to give them money anyway.

Answer 4

Air cars are basically just inefficient electric cars.  They use electricity to power the air compressor, and the compressed air in the car mechanically pushes pistons to propel the car forward.  This mechanical process loses energy as heat, and is not very efficient.

You'd be better off storing that electricity in a battery and using it to power a 90% efficient electric motor.  Electric cars are the way of the future, and with the battery technology advancing rapidly, you're going to start to see a lot of them on the road in the next couple of years.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/electr...

The reason Air Cars are not on the road yet is because of that inefficiency, they have to make them very lightweight.  Thus they have trouble passing US crash tests.

Answer 5

What powers the compressors to create the compressed air is what you shouild be asking.

Answer 6

Limited range and speed.  They are built using incredibly light materials that wouldn't hold up well in crash tests though companies are attempting to fix this problem.  The technology is not proven in the real world.

Answer 7

its just like the question: "Why did they band the water powered car" That was like years and years ago. Its your politics. They don't want to find a way to save the American taxpayers money, they want to have it for them selfs. They wont because it would stop people from buying Gas, and we all know that Bush wants his money lol. Thats the main reason why America rejects stuff like that. Its all about money. Ever hear about the Kyoto Protocol? Yeah, its a agreement to reduce emission by 5%. And guess what? Almost every country in the world signed it, But The USA! Pretty sick that we cannot even agree to stop polluting a tiny bit. the ****?!

Answer 8

Simply put, because the US is run by large insurance companies who require absurd standards to protect their investors.

Seems the European and world car maker standards aren't good enough for the US, while the US auto makers lag well behind the rest of the world in auto technology.

Answer 9

Google is your friend:

http://www.gizmag.com/compressed-air-car...

Answer 10

Compressed air has no calories that can serve energy to move a vehicle

To move a car by compressed l(liquid) air you'd need a truckload of it attached.

Answer 11

'cause French developing & still testing how it's going........ok

Answer 12

Hydrogen is the only alternative fuel worth a hoot. Burns hotter, by product is water and there is technology to produce cars that run on water only or conversion kits to existing cars. No power loss, energy to run a home, on and on and on.

Problem: Water is virtually free and every oil related business would be out of business in 10 years. People would drill a well and fill up the cars, home supplies. Gov and Big B will privatize water utilities and legistate control before that is widely use as a energy solution. No Money, No motivation. Sad.

Good News: Hydrogen is coming and ultimately noboby can stop it!

Answer 13

So, what will drive the compressors? Do we have a lot of excess electrical generation capacity going to waste?

If you hope to use one of these, it may be time to invest  in some more nuclear electric plants.

(We assume you did not want to run the compressor on gasoline.)

Answer 14

edit: scheduled for 2009-2010 could hit 1000 mile range and be sold at under $18,000 http://www.popularmechanics.com/automoti...

they are sold in both france and india....the car sold in india was shipped to the USA for depatment of transportaion certification, the car never made it to the testing phase. Turns out the DOT rejects cars manufatured with an all plastic/glued body and frame. there was a popular mechanics article about  the car in june 2007.

I heard that there is a company out of new york working on getting a modified version of the french car certified by DOT but it's still 3-5 years away from being sold.

(there is a professor at a university in arizona that has a liquid nitrogen engine for a golf-cart he runs around the campus in. there was a popular sciance artical about it in the '90's)

Answer 15

They cost more than regular cars.  They are unproven.  What do you plan on using to refill your tank?

Timmy - All those countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol have also now said they cant meet any of the goals.  Tell me again why we should have spent billions on that.  Not signing it was a better choice then and it would be a better choice for the next version.  Lots of Democrats and independents also own just as much oil stock as Bush.