REVIEW: AirCar - runs on compressed air

After apocalyptic scenarios related to the global warming began to interest scientists, there already began to appear results of exploration in the field of energy economy and some other ecological technologies. In June 2007 Popular Mechanics announced that India, specifically Tata Motors, had begun production of the first car moved by air. This year, Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) announces that production of the similar model, destined for USA market is expecting to begin till the end of 2009, or at least 2010.

They have also tried to find some other solutions in nonpolluting propulsion domain. For example Daewoo a South-Korean company, created a Matiz concept with a hybrid engine: air – electric. Australian company EngineAir also developed a "rotative engine" moved by pressed air. K'Airmobiles presented two working concepts "VPA" (Vehicle with Pneumatic Assistance) and "VPP" (Vehicle with Pneumatic Propulsion) in the end of the last year; maximum weight of such a model being limited by 250 kg.

Propulsion technology of the AirCar's engine was developed by the former Formula 1 engineer for MDI (Motor Development International) from Luxemburg. While in the internal-combustion engines pistons are moved be the explosion of the fuel, then in an AirCar the moving is realized by air under pressure.

ZPM hope that soon the production of AirCars will be more than 10000 units annually. Models that will be launched will be OneCat, with two seats (as was produced in India) and MiniCat, with three seats. The company is also intending to launch a model called CityCat with six seats.

One refueling with 340 l of air under pressure will cost approximately 2 USD and will assure autonomy for more than 1000 km at the speed 100 km/h. The price for such a car is estimating to be 17800 USD.

It sounds too good to be true? We hope that not.