Compressed air + gas = air-powered hybrid car

Hybrid cars are great, what with their higher emm pee gees and all, but there's still one significant issue with the increasingly popular tech: one component of that hybrid relationship happens to be fossil-fuelicious petroleum products. The hybrid Air Car isn't looking to remove that component but, using three dollars worth of pressurized air, they are looking to minimize it for city driving. We've already seen totally air-driven vehicles using the same technology by Indian auto giant Tata, which see you clipping along at one horsepower, going 70 mph for around 120 miles, but what if you need more? No word on range or speed of the hybrid option – which would move from air-powered to gasoline-powered if it needed a boost in either category. It should go without saying that it may be some time before vehicles like this find their way to the US market, but with everyone looking to go green, who knows?

[Elroy @ Jan 8th 2008 6:58PM]

I'd say the "one significant issue" here is the insanely hideous clown car design.

[Ally @ Jan 8th 2008 7:37PM]

I love that the car is litterally green! :P

[Haxxy @ Jan 8th 2008 8:03PM]

Actually, if you take a look at the website, they have a whole bunch of car designs that don't look all too bad at all. Most of them are the same "squished" type, but the colors and form factor are much more reasonable.

Oh, and the car costs $4,000.

[skulldriveshaft @ Jan 9th 2008 3:21AM]

just a longer version of the smart car...

anything that lets me avoid using my gas vehicles is great... and for whatever this thing can't do, there's the gas vehicles...

I'm pretty sure that MOST families now have two gas vehicles, show of hands?

[Shadyman @ Jan 8th 2008 7:02PM]

I'm trying to keep a straight face at their company name.

[Spyvie @ Jan 8th 2008 7:10PM]

Their top of the line model should be called the Bodacious...

[r3loaded @ Jan 8th 2008 7:57PM]

That's actually a bit of a small joke in India, where truck drivers (mainly driving Tata trucks) have something along the lines of "Tata, bye bye!" on the back of their trucks. Expect to hear about them more often as they'll be buying Jaguar + Land Rover soon

[theblockbuster @ Jan 8th 2008 7:09PM]

i think the engineers/designers for electric car companies are all on crack

[Sam Zebian @ Jan 8th 2008 7:18PM]

Two words- It's UGLY!

[dzhiurgis @ Jan 8th 2008 7:19PM]

This would be great or europen oldtowns: close the regular traffic ant allow these, make some loand points, voila!

[jtc970 @ Jan 8th 2008 7:27PM]

that look collision worthy. Compressed air..little car= shrapnel coverage charges.

[Norcon @ Jan 8th 2008 7:25PM]

... Does anyone else see the Scooby Van 2.0 here?

[Dr Buzz0 @ Jan 8th 2008 7:58PM]

I know I'm going to get the whole speech about how we need to be responsible and make sacrifices for the earth, but realistically, until they can make a car not look and have the capacity of a golf cart or that thing, it's not going to have the broad market appeal and utility necessary to actually make a difference in the world and have any chance of being a viable replacement for mainstream cars.

[Yubastard @ Jan 8th 2008 8:16PM]

old news, though informative

[temugen @ Jan 8th 2008 8:29PM]

So it's pretty much a turbo/supercharged engine :)

[josh @ Jan 8th 2008 8:33PM]

Well, it does solve one issue I have with traditional hybrids, mainly that they are far far worse for the environment than your average compact car on account of trading modest fuel economy increases for significant amounts of heavy metal. The numerous freaking batteries that the prius uses, the manufacturing to make those batteries, and the mining to get the metals for the batteries make the oil industry look like greenpeace. (and when diesel jettas can get the same fuel economy without having to be all fancy hybrid it is just sad).

Switching the batteries for compressed air is a much better tradeoff.

[xer0 @ Jan 9th 2008 12:27AM]

Why do they bother making these when they're not even gonna look on the design side?!
like seriously, it looks hideous! no one would buy that even for its crazy technology being used.

[Steve @ Jan 9th 2008 2:34AM]

This is going to make for some great crash reports. Crash happened at junction, car ended up 3 fields away.

[Ed @ Jan 9th 2008 2:39AM]

Geez, they already had the solution thousands of years ago.

Just start using the cars from the Flintstones. The only emissions were from Fred blowing out some Wilma's Broccoli & Cheese from the night before.

Would probably reduce the obesity rate in the US too. Maybe even get it under 5% in less then 2 years.

P.S - If your a creationist, or an intelligent design nut, you probably already believe the Flintstones was a documentary... :)

[TIB @ Jan 9th 2008 2:48AM]

That is one awesome, game-changing piece of art, that is. Of course, this is merely an example of what happens when someone lets an engineer to any sort of artistic design. Function triumphs form every time: look at it - a rectangular box, with the edges smoothed out and the wheels as far out to the corners as possible. Maximum volume ladies. Don't worry, the drivetrain is the real work of art here - and we can always hide that under a more acceptable, um, less noticeable shell. I would, however, miss the little tribute to Boba Fett, so hope that stays...

[-Tj- @ Jan 9th 2008 2:52AM]

Does this thing come equipped with those "explosive" warning signs you see on trucks carrying compressed gases?

[Chris Reddy @ Jan 9th 2008 7:14AM]

Actually, I love this idea - some of the other cars are not too bad looking (remind me of some other VWs. http://www.theaircar.com/models.html

As for the carbon-fiber and plastic tanks - they are designed specifically to rupture the entire length of the tank - resulting in a "WHOOSH" of air instead of a Mythbuster-style air powered rocket. http://www.theaircar.com/tanks.html

Think of it - the basic problem is that every car is a small energy-conversion plant - gas to mechanical energy. That is where the inefficiency comes in. If you can centralize that conversion (coal, wind, nuclear) it becomes very efficient. the problem then is storing and transporting the energy. Air tanks are about as "green" as you can get, but an infrastructure needs to be developed like the gas delivery system, so compressed air is readily available.

[mmxzero @ Jan 10th 2008 1:17AM]

Looks like Little Tikes has some competition now for their Cozy Coupe. Lol, not everyone is looking to go green.

[Nick @ Jan 10th 2008 8:40PM]

Hm, interesting design (homely) but who knows, running on air and all, it might sneak its way into the market. For a more complete discussion and look at hybrid cars, and the more sales oriented approach, we just ran an issue-of-the-day on the topic at our site, something maybe worth checking out. Here's the link to that particular issue..
http://theissue.com/issue/7457.html
cheers!
Nick | TheIssue.com

[Paul Ryan @ Feb 24th 2008 12:44AM]

There's more information on these at mdi.lu and CATvolution.com. I can't wait to get one here and just drive like gas was under a buck.