Air Car

[bigcritter]

A friend just sent me this in an e-mail. It "appears" to be the real deal, after doing a Google search and coming up with this website.
WOW !! Look at this ! A car that runs on “AIR.” | WeeksMD
It runs on electricity and AIR!! From the same company that gave us "TATAs!" ;) No........not those........the Indian car company! Just pull into your local gas station and fill up your tank with AIR!! IF this is the real deal, it sure could change a lot of things. 68 mph....range 125 miles......$2 for the air to fill up.......OR.....plug it in at home and use the on-board air compressor to fill the tanks in about 4 hrs. Also, a planned gas/air hybrid that gets much better performance and range.
Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 - Zero Pollution Motors - 1000-Mile Range - Popular Mechanics

[Flashman]

They come in a variety of colors too:

[Dunerunner]

Now if they could just find an automotive design engineer!!

[bull8042]

Originally Posted by Flashman

They come in a variety of colors too:

BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!!

[Suze]

I think it's pretty cute!



The car's not bad either...

[jmartinsmart]

So if it's powered by compressed air, would you call it the "fart" car?

HAHAahahahaaaa Ugh.

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by Flashman

They come in a variety of colors too:

YA' GOTTA LOVE IT!!!

[Old smart]

Originally Posted by bigcritter

A friend just sent me this in an e-mail. It "appears" to be the real deal, after doing a Google search and coming up with this website. ... [/URL]

Not so new or strange as one might think: Fireless locomotive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . I remember seeing such an engine working around the Domino sugar refinery in Charlestown (Boston) in the early '50s. The Porter company made a lot of them, beginning over 100 years ago.

[cosmart]

The car doesn't run on air. It runs on the energy stored by compressing the gas. How is the gas compressed? Electricity.

I'm sure the engineers are working to try to figure out how to store compressed air at 4500 PSI without it being the world's biggest popped balloon in a crash.

In order for this to work, the cars must be very light, even lighter than a smart. It is more efficient to just store electricity directly in batteries, but of course the batteries have weight, and cost money. I'm guessing if compressed air makes it to the global market, it will be as part of an air/electric hybrid.

[dennyrex]

This company (MDI) has been working on this for years and I would imagine they have most of the problems worked out by now (and no, the tanks do not explode upon impact). The connection with TATA is for technology for the power train.
I believe this is indeed the real deal. They had one at the NY auto show in March. The one being proposed for the US would be the larger citiCAT. The OneCAT pictured in this thread, while licensed for the US will be available in other markets first, and maybe eventually here. In between is the miniCAT (which is the one that looks sort of like the TATA nano) and features three across seating, with the driver in the center.
If you like the idea of smartville, the idea behind the MDI turn-key factory is as good, and scalable.
And remember, the jokes made here (and elsewhere) about the CAT cars are just like the jokes made about the smart car by the SUV owners etc.
I'm hoping the MDI will be my next car.