The Air Car

We were under the impression that the Big 3 automakers, in cahoots with the Bilderbergs and/or the Trilateral Commission, bought up and then buried all the patents for a car that ran on air a long time ago (it's so obvious). But apparently fearing no sinister cabal the Luxembourg-based company Motor Developpement International is introducing the Air Car, which gets up to 50 miles on a full tank of compressed air. There are actually two versions, a small three-seater and a six-seat sedan, but with a top speed of 70mph neither will be able to outrun the Illimunati after they come after you. The upside is that the compressed air tank only takes four hours to "recharge" and you can plug it into any household socket (but then again, from a global perspective converting electricity to compressed air is remarkably inefficient and probably just means more pollution at a powerplant somewhere).

[Alternative Energy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

What's the future of automobiles?

Hydrogen, right?

Well yes and no. Yes it's the future (and may always remain the future) as it's decades away and requires hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars of new infrastructure.

So what's right now?

Plug-in hybrids which can use the existing electric infrastructure. Electric cars and gas/electric hybrids like the Toyota Prius have the potential to be plugged in at home or work and are cheaper than running on gasoline. Although Toyota currently doesn't enable the option to plug-in the Prius technically it can be done. If the charging took place at night it would not require any additional electricity generation as power stations have to be run constantly and there is much less demand at night. By switching to clean renewable energy sources like wind power, the electricity generation could be made with zero emissions.

see:

http://alt-e.blogspot.com/2004/09/hybrid-cars-forbesnewsweek-discussion.html

James
Alternative Energy Blog

[Andrew @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

So... Does it come with a free hand or foot pump, you know, in case you run out of wind and need to top up the tank at the curb-side? ;-)

[Server @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

"...converting electricity to compressed air is remarkably inefficient and probably just means more pollution at a powerplant somewhere..."

Hogwash! The combined polution generated by cars/trucks far outway the pollution of a hydro/coal plant. And who's to say the electricity was not generated via nuclear plant? This is a great invention and IS the future. Only problem is, there is a huge conspiracy by the gov and big 3 to downplay/suppress or delay this technology as much as possible as this would mean mass layoffs and new oil politics. just think about it for a minute...

[photogeek @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

hook a solar panel up to its (assuming it has one) cigarette lighter, and you have the beginnings of a perpetual motion machine, assuming the electric motor can handle running constantly?

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Alright, calm down everyone. No one is dissing on electric cars here. It's just that it does take a LOT of electricity to compress enough air to power a car. It'd probably make more sense to use that electricity to more efficiently charge an electric car battery. Not all methods of storing electricity are equally efficient, and I believe that the point here is that using COMPRESSED AIR is not that great compared to other methods of storing energy.

[Chip Thomas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Their website says:
http://www.theaircar.com/faq.html

"What does the fuel cost?
Around $2 to fill up the air tanks."

That sounds cheaper than hydrogen. I wish they had some real numbers.

[Server @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

The writing is on the wall. The days of the combustible engine are numbered! Electric is not only cheaper to run/build its also MORE POWERFUL! (you read right! DC MOTORS RULEZ!) Its just a matter of time and politics.

[Alternative Energy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

see:

http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=572227

Ford certainly doesn't seem to want to mass produce them. It makes sense. There's more money in SUVs, than small efficient electric cars. To try to keep up an environmentally friendly image Ford spends a bit of money on hydrogen research. Actual production if it ever happens is way, way off in the future. Meanwhile it can keep making SUVs.

James
Alternative Energy Blog

[Brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I was wondering where I'd seen this car before and I figured it out:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005BRIQ/103-3540228-0142232?v=glance&s=toys&n=569552&me=A3UN6WX5RRO2AG&vi=pictures&img=14#more-pictures

[Gary @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

The upside is that the compressed air tank only takes four hours to �recharge� and you can plug it into any household socket (but then again, from a global perspective converting electricity to compressed air is remarkably inefficient and probably just means more pollution at a powerplant somewhere).

Wrong: Alternative powered sites would be very easy to hookup.

[Scott Robertson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Air powered vehicles were available commercially for 50 years, until WWII. There is lots of info available, and MDI has done us all a big favor by getting so much publicity on their air car project. There are also unrelated air car projects ongoing in Australia, Korea, and other locations, as well as many air car enthusiasts all over the world. Since the air car is so simple, it is often overlooked; we have been trained to seek the most complicated solutions so that we will remain dependent on the billionaires to bail us out from the problems they have created with their greed. "We'll be buying breathing air from the boys that brought us smog..."

[noonar @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

So apart from MDI which other big companies are developing compressed air engines? MDI seems to be the only one publicly promoting it. And what about the Big 3 - are they doing it on the hush hush?

[Mr R @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I wonder if there is any other types of cars that do NOT look likes boxes? like a BMW for an exampel.

[Mr R @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I wonder if there is any other types of MDI cars that do not look likes small boxes? Like a BWM or a Volvo for an exampel.

[Mr R @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I'm sorry for posting my comment twice :(. Anyway I have a new one. If they say that the car is creating more pollutions in a powerplant, so does that meant that the car is as inefficient as the ordinary cars when it comes to not polluting the air or our envirement?

[Roccy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Yes Mr. R, that is exactly what they are claiming. It may be fact that substantial energy is lost when being converted from electricity to compressed air, but the balance factor is that power plants posses technologies to create their power in a much cleaner way than gasoline engines, as stated earlier: nuclear, turbine, hydro...

And the technology will only get better.

[Reich @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

When and Where I can buy MDI car?
I have cash and time, but where I must go to get it?

[Johnny @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Well in time there will be new models of the car ,just have to try and sell something to the mass market first and get more money for development of new designs. Mr R :)

Johnny

[Michael H @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I am in the process of building a
air trikehybride.
With three wheel steering.

I have it on paper but no money to construct it at this time. can anyone give me clues on how to get funding??? Combustion engine's wont be around much longer.

[Jerry Halstead @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I've been operating my homemade electric car for eight years and have heard this "more pollution from power plant" line so many times. It's like everyone was given a single cue card to read from and do so without even considering what they are saying.

While it is true that I could use extremely inefficient sources of electricity it is also true that I can generate my own via solar, wind, hydro or other methods.

The same cannot be said for gasoline. Barring a few folks running off of old french fry grease, I'm not aware of anyone making their own gasoline or having any control over where and how it is created. Gasoline has it's own "transmission inefficiencies" as well, since it needs to be pumped from the ground, transported, processed, and then transported a few more times.

[HHJ @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

"...converting electricity to compressed air is remarkably inefficient and probably just means more pollution at a powerplant somewhere..."

I don't think that this is necessarily true. Instead of electric power, compressed air coudl also be produced with wind generators (take out electrical generator, put in an air pump) thus it is easy to create compressed air without any energy conversion, which is the greatest loss (fossil fuel to electricity, electricity to compressed air). And apart from the initial investment, the energy thereafter is free. Good business - imagine a row of windmills in intervalls of 15 miles or more along the 101 in California...

I have been in France in the factory/research facility and I told Guy that he should not try to reach the final goal in one big leap. The problem of the car is the low energy level of the compressed air. They need very ligh weight tanks that are not on the market today. So their way to go would be to heat up the air to a higher level (increase the stored energy) than the heat from the surrounding air delivers. This could be achieved with fossil fuel, like a gas burner running on propane or other readily available fuel, until the tanks are available. Such a constant combustion is better to control than in a regular gas engine, thus the exhaust has very few pollutants in it. Still CO2, but .... better to have a car with the cleanest propulsion on the market than the "zero emission engine" as a pie in the sky. When they make enough money, they can finance the development themselves and are not relying on investoment money.

[Scott @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

I agree that converting electricity to compressed air is not the most energy efficient way, but perhaps the most cost effective. MDI cars are slated to be sold around $15k and the electic infrastrucure is already in place.

They are also potentially the most time efficient. One major hurdle pure electric vehicles still face is charging time. The Air Car can refill the air tanks in 2-3 minutes.

Electricity can be produced with zero pollution by hydro, wind and solar.

[Douglas Hvistendahl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:05AM]

Air compression from electricity is not necessarily highly inefficient. The problem is combining efficiency and relatively low cost. BTW batteries, last I heard run about 70% efficiency tho they may be improved now. Hoping MDI works out!!!