An alternative second car?

[greg]

Am I the only one amused by this vehicle? What a great second car for around town and job commutes:

Air Car - First Air-Powered Car - Zero Emissions - Behind the Tech - Popular Mechanics

Why can't we do something like this?

 

[73ss454]

Sounds great Greg, only problem is that it's 2 bucks to fill the tank now. But wait till there's a bunch of them and then it'll be 50 bucks.

 

[FinanceDude]

Sounds great Greg, only problem is that it's 2 bucks to fill the tank now. But wait till there's a bunch of them and then it'll be 50 bucks.

Once the oil companies get ahold of the technology, it will cost MORE than a Tahoe to fill up..........

BTW, did you know that GM invented anti-lock brakes in the late 40's, but "hid" the patent at corporate until the public demanded it?

Anybody think like me that ABS would have been nice in all those 6000 metal monsters mom and dad drove??

 

[TromboneAl]

The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks.

That is way ahead of any other alternative fuel car. Cheap, reasonable range, very cheap to drive. 1.6 cents/mile to drive compared with 10 cents/mile for gas.

 

[73ss454]

The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks.

That is way ahead of any other alternative fuel car. Cheap, reasonable range, very cheap to drive. 1.6 cents/mile to drive compared with 10 cents/mile for gas.

Ya think Al? I don't believe it for a minute. Just like were paying stupid money for water in bottles we'll be paying for AIR once they figure out we need it for our cars. Then don't forget the taxes, it's gotta be taxed, right!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Bet it sucks a bit to get into a crash and have that tank rupture.

I wonder how high up in the air you'd end up

 

[73ss454]

Bet it sucks a bit to get into a crash and have that tank rupture.

I wonder how high up in the air you'd end up

Yeah, it would shut down the highway for hours with the cleanup.

 

[FinanceDude]

Bet it sucks a bit to get into a crash and have that tank rupture.

I wonder how high up in the air you'd end up

Probably not as high as you'd get with propane or liquid nitrogen..............

 

[Martha]

It sure is cute!

 

[greg]

Sounds great Greg, only problem is that it's 2 bucks to fill the tank now. But wait till there's a bunch of them and then it'll be 50 bucks.

Yeah, only in a country like ours. And they'll start taxing air too. And we'll have to put it back cleaner than we got it: The gov't will require a $2000 do-jiggy on the tailpipe to monitor all expirations. Um . . maybe we could add methane to the air mixture? . . . sort of like an octane booster.

 

[Sam]

Another deceptive technology, not much different from the hydrogen car. The question is how much energy does it need to compress that much air? Zero emissions? Right for driving the car, but untrue for generating compressed air.

The real useful technologies are solar, geo, wind, hydro, even the controversial nuclear.

 

[greg]

The $12,700 CityCAT, one of a handful of planned Air Car models, can hit 68 mph and has a range of 125 miles. It will take only a few minutes for the CityCAT to refuel at gas stations equipped with custom air compressor units; MDI says it should cost around $2 to fill the car’s carbon-fiber tanks.

That is way ahead of any other alternative fuel car. Cheap, reasonable range, very cheap to drive. 1.6 cents/mile to drive compared with 10 cents/mile for gas.

And if Nords owned one he could just charge it off his solar array for nuthin. Seriously, this was the very first time I've ever heard about this sort of propulsion unit. What a great alternative possibility.

 

[greg]

Another deceptive technology, not much different from the hydrogen car. The question is how much energy does it need to compress that much air? Zero emissions? Right for driving the car, but untrue for generating compressed air.

The real useful technologies are solar, geo, wind, hydro, even the controversial nuclear.

I disagree. This, to me, seems significantly different from hydrogen and such. They already stated that it takes $2 worth of electricity to compress enough air, bring the pressure to 4000+lbs/sq in, for that little car to go about 100 miles. That's a pretty high level of efficiency to my mind. And as we speak, wind farms and such are going up, feeding clean energy into the grid. Plus that macro grid energy is for the most part about 90% efficient (at least electricity from natural gas is). This efficiency rate is better than virtually any car currently operating in this country.

Combining electricity and air to power individual vehicles seems like a good alternative to me.

 

[Sam]

They already stated that it takes $2 worth of electricity to compress enough air, bring the pressure to 4000+lbs/sq in

If it does indeed cost $2, then I agree. But until I see how they come up with that $2, I'm not convinced. I'm surprised Popular Mechanic simply gives us that number without any data to back it up. How much energy is required to compress that much air to that pressure? Air pump efficiency?

Edit: I just learned that the car is equipped with an electrical air compressor, so you can refuel at home. But they don't tell you how many kilowatts it takes to "fill it up". If the technology is that efficient, that would be the first thing they would tell you, imo.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Given that theres no free lunch, i'm a little confused...it takes more than two bucks worth of electricity to propel an electric car for 100 miles. So is an air compressors motor really that much more efficient than one put in a car?

 

[sailor]

Given that theres no free lunch, i'm a little confused...it takes more than two bucks worth of electricity to propel an electric car for 100 miles. So is an air compressors motor really that much more efficient than one put in a car?

CFB, good electric cars were quoted at efficiencies better than 200Wh/mile.
It would take 20kWh to go 100 miles, which at 10 cents per kWh would be around $2.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hmm...some of the figures i saw were that it'd cost about six bucks of electricity to go a hundred miles. But then our electricity in CA is more expensive than in many other areas.

 

[Texas Proud]

I disagree. This, to me, seems significantly different from hydrogen and such. They already stated that it takes $2 worth of electricity to compress enough air, bring the pressure to 4000+lbs/sq in, for that little car to go about 100 miles. That's a pretty high level of efficiency to my mind. And as we speak, wind farms and such are going up, feeding clean energy into the grid. Plus that macro grid energy is for the most part about 90% efficient (at least electricity from natural gas is). This efficiency rate is better than virtually any car currently operating in this country.

Combining electricity and air to power individual vehicles seems like a good alternative to me.

The interesting thing about wind farms is the people who live around them hate them for the noise.... and they seem to be killing a lot of birds... now, factor that into the costs

I also found it funny that they will shut them down when there is TOO much wind.. heck, you would think WOHOO>>> free money...

 

[HFWR]

What we really need is a car powered by hot air...

 

[Deetso]

I just couldnt resist! The vehicle I take to w*rk runs on peanut butter and oatmeal!

 

[greg]

The interesting thing about wind farms is the people who live around them hate them for the noise.... and they seem to be killing a lot of birds... now, factor that into the costs

I also found it funny that they will shut them down when there is TOO much wind.. heck, you would think WOHOO>>> free money...

I recently read that cats kill far more birds than wind farm props. Maybe we should just throw cats up in the air near wind farm propellers.

I also read about shutting wind farms down when wind velocity got too high or were headed that way. The bearings either overheat or melt . . . just give technology a bit of time. This stuff ain't rocket science.

Finally, the nice thing about these cars as an alternative to hydrogen fueled ones is that we wouldn't really have to scale up fueling choices/places/electric stations: As I remember it, the hydrogen powered car won't become popular until their are lots of places that sell hydrogen fuel, but no one will put in hydrogen fuel tanks until they can make a profit on it--the old chicken-egg problem. With air cars everything "should" be simpler: We can all plug in an electric cord then throw a switch, and we can do it at home if we like. To my mind, very low levels of technology (or at least familiar technology), many alternative places to fuel up, and--for the most part--a much safer fueling process than transferring gas or hydrogen into a vehicle.

CFB: Maybe if the tank bursts you just sort of spin around like a loose balloon until you fizzle out or hit something. And it might make a very interesting noise too.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

That'd be cool if it plays benny hill music at the same time the puncture occurs.

Maybe that could be a nice addition to the options list...

 

[Zathras]

Texas, not the people in Iowa that I know that live next to them. The noise is minimal. And as already stated, housecats kill many more birds than wind generators do.
As for compressed air cars, they have been around for quite some time as con jobs. Free energy and the like. The technology is improving, but I suspect it takes a lot more than $2 worth of electricity to compress the air. Is it that the compressed air currently costs $2, or that it used $2 of electricity.
The Tesla Roadster (for comparison) has a range of 200 miles with 52Kw.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

I read the article and keep thinking "aw man, my engine is flat!"

 

[justin]

If your tire goes flat, can you just pump a little over from the air tanks into the tire?