An Air Car You Could See in 2009: ZPM’s 106 MPG Compressed-Air Hybrid
Compressed-Air Powered cars could take you over 800 miles on a single fill-up, at speeds of up to 96 mph. They should refuel in less than 3 minutes, and at speeds over 35 mph emit about half the CO2 of a Toyota Prius. Best part? You could see them in the US at the end of next year.
Car-tech aficionados may already be familiar with Zero Pollution Motor’s (ZPM) compressed-air powered car. For those that haven’t heard of it yet, read on:
“The compressed air vehicle is a new generation of vehicle that finally solves the motorist’s dilemma: how to drive and not pollute at a cost that is affordable!”
What happens when you replace the explosions in your car’s combustion chamber with clean compressed air? Well, as long as you lighten things up by replacing heavier parts with aluminum, you end up with a clean, efficient way to power a vehicle.
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The world’s first commercial compressed-air powered vehicle is currently being produced by India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, who is licensing the technology from European-based company MDI (a company powered by the innovation of ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre). They anticipate having about 6000 of these vehicles on city streets in India in 2008.
How does an Air Car Work?
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Although potentially revolutionary it really isn’t that complicated. What a compressed-air car does is use the force of super-compressed air to move the engine’s pistons up and down, as opposed to explosions produced from injecting a small amount of fuel.
To get things moving on compressed air, weight reduction is a top priority. MDI’s aluminum-based engine weighs half what a normal engine does, and the frame is also built out of lightweight materials (US version will be aluminum?).
ZPM’s US model will store about 3200 cubic feet of compressed air in carbon fiber tanks at 4500 psi. Carbon fiber tanks are used for safety reasons since they tend to split open (as opposed to explode) when punctured.
Compressed air from the tanks will run directly to the engine under speeds of 35 miles per hour. That means that under 35 mph the car qualifies as a zero emissions vehicle. At higher speeds the engine will burn a small amount of fuel to create more compressed air, sort of like how a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt produces on-the-fly electricity. The hybrid air-car setup should be able use any number of fuels, including gasoline, propane, or ethanol.
1 tank of air + 8 gallons of gas = 848 mile range
The car’s compressed air tank can be refilled in about 3 minutes from a service station. To fill it up at home the car would be plugged in, where an onboard compressor would refill the tank in about 4 hours, at an electrical cost of about $2.
If you aren’t sure whether turning electricity into compressed air is really that clean, here are some numbers: at speeds over 35 mph the air car emits about half the CO2 per mile as a 2007 Toyota Prius (0.141lbs of CO2 per mile, while that the Toyota Prius emits 0.34 lbs of CO2 per mile).
Will we actually see a US-model Air Car in 2009/10?
New York startup ZPM, like Tata motors, has licensed technology from Luxembourg-based MDI. MDI also has plans to release these cars in Europe in 2-, 4-, and 6-cylinder models, starting under $15,000.
Despite lightweight construction that could be of concern for passing US safety tests, it appears that air car technology could be available in the US in late 2009. ZPM told PopularMechanics.com earlier this year that it expects to produce the first US model air car at the end of 2009 or early 2010. (Btw, ZPM’s model is also a candidate for the $10 million Automotive X Prize.)
ZPM wants to produce a 6-seater, 75-hp model with a 1000 mile range at 96 mph, all for just $17,800.
The big question I think we all have is: will this car make it through US safety testing? ZPM’s website says that air car models will meet the same safety specifications of all cars driven in the US. As with most of these new hyper-efficient models we’ve seen (like Aptera’s Typ1 or VW’s 1L Car), ZPM claims the vehicle’s “tubular body provides increased resistance in the event of a crash.” The car will also come with Air Bags and ABS braking.
It’s another case of wait-and see, and we can only hope ZPM follows through.
For more info, check out a great youtube video about air cars (embedded below).
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Posts Related to the Air Car, Hybrid Cars, and Other Vehicles:
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- Aptera’s $26000 Electric Car and 300 MPG Hybrid Coming Soon
- The Cleanest Cars on Earth?: Honda Civic GX and Other Natural Gas Vehicles
- Affordable Electric Cars Coming to US in 2009
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Photo Credit: Zero Pollution Motors
Yknow, if we’d just focus our innovation efforts towards perfecting teleportation, all this’d be moot.
All this new fuel tech is great, but why do the new cars that use them have to look like shit?
In response to Dan above, regarding a different drivetrain:
Check out the Tesla Turbine - a very efficient and incredibly simple turbine that can be driven by air as efficiently as water. Originally designed for the Niagra Falls dam. The Tesla Turbine doesn’t use blades! Which makes it very cheap to produce and replace.
I agree, instead of driving a cylinder, they should place turbines in each one of the wheels, and drive those wheels independently using the compressed air.
There absolutely has to be less mechanical losses there..
Sadly, this is not a solution at all!
As already stated above… the energy to compress the air will be from the electric power plants for now. Other factors of inefficiency are also introduced.
Unless the global birthrate is not curtailed, hopefully through smaller family INCENTIVES and larger family “taxes”, and through Re-education of the growing masses on the planet, No technological changes in transportation will solve the problem.
One child per family Must be the limit for now. Sad but true. The days of “be fruitful and multiply” are Over.
You have a Brain.. Use it and THINK!
http://www.northernexpress.com/editorial/random.asp?id=3107
“If every couple on Earth produced only a single child, we would have a global population of just 1.6 billion by the end of the century, Weisman claims — the same number as existed on earth in 1900. That would mean no more global warming, no struggles over water, fewer refugees and no need to fight over scant resources.
Third World countries like China, Brazil and India, people have lots of kids because that’s their “social security” system to care for ma & pa when they get old.
Consider India: It’s half the size of the United States, but has more than twice our population — one billion people. India churns out 130,000 new births every day of the year — the equivalent of a new city each day. So here’s the joke: How many Indians does it take to screw in an Earth-friendly fluorescent light bulb to save our planet? Fill in the blank.
The Bush administration has encouraged this population time bomb by denying funds for family planning programs in poor countries where they need it most. And the Catholic Church, among other religions, actually encourage its followers to have more children.”
This is just ridiculous. As it is, compressing air for use of this kind uses up a gratuitous amount of energy, and enough energy is lost between the transaction between compressor to can and from can to engine to run probably more than one internal combustion engine.
On top of this, because of the massive amount of drivers in the united states alone, the air compression industry would have to have a massive overhaul to keep up with the demand for compressed air.
Its a nice idea, but it isn’t changing the problem with global dependence on fossil fuels. It’s a quick fix, or maybe a distraction, not a long term solution.
Sorry but this just doesn’t add up right. The figures and performance they’re claiming are for a golf-cart like vehicle that can’t possibly meet crash standards, support air conditioning, use a comfortable suspension, etc. There are a dozen ways to make high mileage golf carts. For a real car, the amount of energy stored by compressed air doesn’t come close to what’s already achieveable with a good battery. And as someone said above, if you’re going to use compressed air, why bother using an internal combustion engine to convert the energy back into torque? It’s inefficient, expensive and difficult to manufacture, and heavy no matter what it’s made from. Plenty of cars already have all aluminum engines. At most they save a hundred pounds or so. Don’t hold your breath for anything like a real air-powered car in 2009. There are better solutions.
All I want to know is, where is mosieur with our flying car, which is really nothing but a small airplane.. Where’s our hydrogen cars that the companies were all saying they could build 6 years ago? Actually what I want to know is where is the creativity in american people such as ourselves to come up with better ways to save the planet and beat the system? Truth is it doesn’t matter, even if the car is air powered you can bet that gas stations that give free air for tire fill ups will be charging probably 100 bucks to fill up that little thing… Just a reality check..
The heck with electricity!
We should you wind towers and solar to compress the AIR.
Listen all this stuff is great, but has anyone here seen the documentary “who kiled the electric car?” As long as there are petroleum and oil companies on this earth, we will not ever see these alternate fuel vehicles replace the internal combustion engine… It all boils down to money…