Posted on 05/25/2009 2:52:04 PM PDT by The_Sword_of_Groo
NEW YORK (AP) - Most car companies are racing to bring electric vehicles to the market. But one startup is skipping the high-tech electronics, making cars whose energy source is pulled literally out of thin air.
Zero Pollution Motors is trying to bring a car to U.S. roads by early 2011 that's powered by a combination of compressed air and a small conventional engine.
ZPM Chief Executive Shiva Vencat said the ultimate goal is a price tag between $18,000 and $20,000, fuel economy equivalent to 100 miles per gallon and a tailpipe that emits nothing but air at low enough speeds.
Elsewhere in the world, the technology is already gaining speed. The French startup Motor Development International, which licensed the technology to ZPM, unveiled a new air-powered car at the Geneva Auto Show in March. Airlines KLM and Air France are starting to test the bubble-shaped AirPod this month for use as transportation around airports.
Engineering experts, however, are skeptical of the technology, saying it is clouded by the caveat that compressing air is notoriously energy intensive.
"Air compressors are one of the least efficient machines to convert electricity to work," said Harold Kung, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University. "Why not use the electricity directly, as in electric cars? From an energy utilization point of view, the compressed (air) car does not make sense."
As Vencat spells it out, the "air cars" plug into a wall outlet, allowing an on-board compressor to pressurize the car's air tank to 4,500 pounds per square inch. It takes about four hours to get the tank to full pressure, then the air is then released gradually to power the car's pistons.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
True, I realize electric motors supply instant torque. Can you amplify on your reply a bit please? I am not sure which of my comments you are replying too.
If it cost 60,000 or so it is not going to do well. The eight wheel drive could be utilized in off road vehicles and garner a huge following. However,(again with the but) there is still the range limit. While 200 miles would be ok for a commute vehicle in some areas it would not work in a lot of areas. I used to commute 90 miles one way, every day, that means I would have to recharge this car every night. 10 hours charging time means I have no vehicle once I get home.
Once again we are back to cost and the cost of the electricity to recharge it, especially in view of Bozo's cap and trade BS he wants to impose on people.
Imagine if you would how many clutches the average diesal locomotive would go through in a year and the expense of changing them.
Or replacement of the parts involved in the operation of a clutch
I think it is an academic exercise. An experiment in applied mechanics. It is pure research to learn new ways to build a car.
Having said that, I think they are onto something. As an aluminum extrusion designer, I was really impressed with the use of the floor designed using extrusions that slide together in modular units rectangular in cross section to receive the very special series wired batteries.
and it can conveniently serve as your packaging for the afterlife. casket or urn, it will make either turn.
Without the batteries, it’s a diesel-electric which is way heavier, less efficient and more expensive than a conventional diesel car.
The man who accomplished the impossible.
He made segways look cool.
CaC2+H2O?
After the caving trip, When you dump the stuff in your carbide light into the restaurant toilet and then light a match.......vaboooom!
Don’t know old man but the formula looks good!:)
Ok, then my point exactly, if both the hybrid and the diesel electric are too heavy and costly and don't deliver the goods, why not just plain old diesel engines in cars that have been proven, in some areas, to deliver 50+ miles per.
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