The Air Car

[jagara1]

So it's green and yet it needs recharging via an electric point of already compressed air..?

Doesn't sound particularly green to me unless the electricity or compressed air is provided by the tooth fairy...

[CAROTTABR]

Bem , é o caso do Superfluxos, um aparelho muito interessante que utilizo no meu motor , funciona e até hoje não vi nenhum incentivo e aleás sofreram uma conspiração forte da industri petrolífera.

[HDCiaran]

Awesome. Only if every car could be lake that.

[Eqfases]

Plain and simple: This uses more energy to compress air than the one it delivers, so a complete waste of energy.

[FRdemo9]

@Eqfases Any time you store energy as potential energy and then use it for work; a substantial amount of the original energy will be lost. No machine is even close to 100% efficient. I have no way of verifying 200km per tank but 2 dollars of electricity to move a van 200 km hardly sounds like a waste of energy to me. If you were really concerned about it, you could have solar panels slowly fill a large tank at home, and then fill up from that.

[fizzguts]

@FRdemo9 The actual range is about 7 km maybe 15km for the airpod, and that is with a 6hp engine You need a 6kw compressor running for about 6 hours to recharge this piece of crap. The inefficiency and miserable range make it a non starter.

By the way batteries are knocking on 90% efficient for storing power. generators and electric motors have similar efficiencies. Compressors and air motors are hideous by comparison with minimal room for improvement

[slh950]

be really cool if you could inject the air manually, ie with pedals

[2karriizman]

Most cars spend a lot of time in a car park.Light is avaliable every day in most parts of the world and can be used to create electricity useing solar panels on cars to charge batteries drive brushless motors and on board compressors to fill air tanks for nite driveing if needed.There is no reason with todays technologies for the use of any polluting energy source.If we do not change our polluting ways this planet will become uninhabitable for life as we know it.Fossil and nuke fuel stinks.

[bingorev]

Why can't this man on the video tell us how many kwh's the compressor needs to consume during those 4 hors? That is the only important question that needs to be answered. Your job as a reporter is to educate the world. Do it, - or step aside..!

[peteryan75]

so the air compresses itself? as in: no electricity needed to power the compressor? wow! that really is not just a bunch of hot air! because, I mean, unless its solar or wind power produced electricity then there is probably a little hot air in the coal, natural gas or nuclear power produced electricity.

[tulpengekte]

Right...I'm sure no emissions are produced in compressing the air to 300 bar!  Morons.

[TheKaos90]

@tulpengekte Actually you have a point but it stands for today , maybe a few years later you will be able to charge the tanks using non-pollutive energy

[THEJOKEYJOKER]

@tulpengekte sure no emissions , usa has fat people who should do some work outs and generate some electricity , thus there will be neither emissions nor fat people and diseases !! isn't that great lol !

[anonymous36594]

FART

[mikehanoo33]

Free energy labeled 'economic terrorism' - The widespread adoption of these new, non-polluting energy and propulsion systems will effectively replace the use of oil, gas, coal, nuclear power, impacting 4.5 trillion dollars a year in world economic activity, replace the current? geo-political order with one based on decentralized abundance. (Examiner; March 21, 2009)

[SirTragain]

4350psi holy crap!!!

[fairyheli2]

@SirTragain its a bomb on wheels

[vpaczkowski]

@fairyheli2 petrol cars are bombs on wheels.

[Shmeflar]

you could not produce enought electricity to power a compressor from a standard car engine, even with 100% of the power coming out of the motor converted to electricity. your cars air conditioning is powered by the motor itself, it turns the compresor, and this is why you lose power while it is on and if you attached an alternator to the wheel or any other moving part on the car you are causing friction on the whole system reducing power output of the engine.

[Shmeflar]

air powered engines have been around a long time. they are extremely inefficent. the power it takes to compress air to the psi needed in these tanks is insane. untill we find a way to make clearn electricity this is no different then using petrol. also in the future if we can produce clean electricity - it will be far more efficent to use electric motors then to compress air using it. air conditioning uses a compressor motor, this is why your electricity bill skyrockets when you use it.

[sbeyea8]

Why not use something like an alternator on the wheels to produce electricy to run an onboard Compressor

[fizzguts]

"Why not use something like an alternator on the wheels to produce electricy to run an onboard Compressor"

Why not put a sprocket on the back axle linked to a sprocket on the front axle via a chain drive.

That was sarcasm it case you didn't get it

[madnesscombat5]

we should just use human power to compress the air, theres nothing more efficient then a couple houndred men eating hamburgers.

[fizzguts]

6kw for six hours to recharge thei POC so you can go about 5 miles

The average male can put out about 0.2kw continuously so it would take about 3 days pedaling hard for you to recharge this con. For the range and speed of this pathetic con it's aced by a bike

[madnesscombat5]

@fizzguts yeah.. bikes own all..

[Charlieutube99]

This IS a bunch of hot air.

The prototype car pictured in the video has been abandoned by MDI and will never go into production.

They downsized their vehicle to a golf cart size and speed, but still cannot manage to go into production. They have promised production almost every year since 2000, but we are still waiting for MDI to deliver even a single vehicle.

Hot air. No product, but MDI will gladly accept your investment or sell you an option on a franchise.

[animebsd]

ya but was about pressurizing it? if u plug itin or watever it will make just as much green house gasses bacause of the power required to pressure the tank up

[Azmodawn]

yes vengence... because running water over a wheel to create the majority of electricity is how most of the world outside your US produces power... deff non-eco-friendly

[robertyt2]

MDI is a scam.

[drugband]

OR NOT?

[MrSabre11]

why do you think that? do you know how to use google? to lazy to check it out for yourself?

[sbinouz]

I am an egeeniring student working on that subject and I had the opportunity to meet Guy Negre (the inventor of the car) and visit his factory; MDI submitted lot of patent , and is connected to TATA MOTORS, moreover MDI cars will be sell in France soon, so MDI is may not be a commercial succes but at least it is a technological one.

The director of MDI has worked in differant sector of high technology before creating MDI. So it is not a scam.

[fizzguts]

So you had the car out for a road test went more than 7.2km at 30kph??

Tata are not building the air car.

Negre has been selling licences since the 1990's result. Nothing, no cars, zip, zero, nada.

Did ask him why the e.volution car (same scam) in South Africa 2000 was never produced?

The 20,000 Taxi for Mexico city in 2003?

Google rexresearch Negre

[sbinouz]

My friend working with me found some documents, proving that you are right and I am wrong. They told me the car cant work on a distance further than 40km. I dont have seen the documents yet, but i think it is true now.

I maintain (for the moment) that MDI (or CQFD) has some interesting patents. But air car is not for tomorow (i think).

[aburifda]

Use the Liquid Nitrogen ( LIN) as fuel. Pass the LIN through ambient air tube-fin evaporator to heat it up then LIN becomes Nitrogen gas. This pressurised gas can then be applied as replacement of compressed air.

[brentburnout]

so how would you go about warming this car up in the winter anyways?

[onlylordisAllah]

This is rubbish and isn't a green way to go. Think about it ppl, how do you get the air to be compressed, the mecahnism that compresses the air is not green so really since at one stage (especially primary) you have to use non green process to get your fuel then u really haven't achieve 100% green solution. What a aste of time

[drugband]

I believe that using grid energy is eventually going to be much easier to come by,

WE SHOULD WORK ON OTHER RENEWABLES ALSO

[vengencefrom1979]

used in conjunction with solar and wind energy it could break the cycle of relying on coal or oil.

[petrajohn2]

Its Making me think- Using a lot of spare tyres as containers, Free air from petrol station, and a an air engine

[geoff390]

Interesting but i fail to see how compressing the air to 4350PSI can be efficant... and i bet the energy to compress the air comes from coal powerstations. My question is how much energy is used to compress the air and how much energy can the engine produce?

[rich991980]

the part about filling it with "gas station compressed air" in a few minutes it not accurate. The compressed air you fill your tires with is not high enough pressure. The compressed air stations will be specific to the air car, because the pressure needs to be so high. That will only take a few minuts to fill. Can't wait to buy one of these cars!!!!