Air Powered Cars

There are alternative fuel vehicles and there are alternative fuel vehicles. Some burn vegetable oil, ethanol, alcohol, hydrogen but have you heard of a compressed air powered car? If you think this is a load of hot air, let me assure you it is not.

The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre for Luxembourg-based Moteur Development International or MDI. It uses compressed air to push its pistons. The Air Car will be built by India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors. Refueling is simple and only takes 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. Cool.

Instead of having expensive and heavy batteries, the Air Car has a compressed air tank. Talk about revolutionary or is it 1 step forward 2 steps back. After all the money spend on developing batteries, compressed air technology has been around for ages. Compressed air powers almost all the tools at your mechanics workshop.

Back to the Air Car. It is light urban car, with a tubular chassis that is glued not welded and a body of fiberglass so don’t reckon on seeing it in the US anytime soon. It can reach a respectable 68 mph with a range of between 200 to 300 km. Not bad.

Now I wonder if people will think I’m crazy when I say I fill up the gas at the tire pump?

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