Last December, Green Car Advisor's Nick Kurczewski was able to snag a ride in MDI's AIRPod. Now, the lucky punk journalist has taken a turn behind the wheel. The short version of his review: this could be the car of the future and it feels like an amusement park ride, but it's no Millennium Falcon. Seriously.

As we know, the Air Car uses compressed air to power a small two-cylinder engine. The 180cc poweplant produces 5.4 horsepower, but MDI is working on a upgraded AIRPod GT will have 8 hp. Kurczewski says the AIRPod's joystick steering is modified from the original design, which would have seen the speed and deceleration controlled by the stick as well as direction. That complicated-sounding mess has been scrapped in favor of more traditional pedals + joystick.

Check out all the details - including why driving a bubble car with no openable windows in June is not a good idea and how MDI plans to bring dozens of AIRPods to airports and universities and other locations around the world - over at Inside Line. Thanks to throwback for the tip!

[Source: Inside Line]

A rear seat that faces backwards. Powered by compressed air. Name like the AirPOD and FlowAIR. A windshield that doubles as the door. There are a lot of hurdles that MDI's compressed air line of vehicles needs to jump before people will consider them "real" cars - or at least a solid alternative. At least one North American journalist was recently given the chance to see if riding in a prototype AirPOD is anything like a true car experience. The verdict: the vehicle is noisy, but maneuverable and takes some getting used to.

Granted, MDI representatives say that there is a lot of work to do on the AirPOD - sound insulation and a better suspension were named by Green Car Advisor - before the vehicle goes on sale. MDI (which stands for Motor Development International and is based in Luxembourg) is saying that the first production models will be ready in March or April for around $8,300. These will be fleet vehicles used at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Consumer sales - whether in India with Tata Motors or in the US with an as-yet-unnamed partner - will have to wait.


[Source: Green Car Advisor]

Echoing rumors that we've been hearing all year is a news story from Kiplingers that we ran across on Yahoo Financial suggesting again that air-powered vehicles will be available in the U.S. within a few years time. Instead of larger cars, though, we could get the little three-wheeled, joystick-driven AirPod that's scheduled to hit New Zealand any time now. Zero Pollution Motors still has high hopes that it will bring cars powered by compressed air to the masses in the United States. In all actuality, the cars are really powered by whatever compresses the air that resides in the car's tank, but that's another matter entirely. ZPM envisions small plants in every U.S. state where consumers will be able to purchase one of an estimated 8,000 annual AirPods directly. This would eliminate the middle-man and combine the factories with the dealerships. Larger States would get multiple dealerships. The plants would license the technology and get a fully turn-key plant from MDI/Tata Motors for a reported $15 million. We'll believe it when we see it. Thanks for the tip, Torrent!

[Source: Kiplingers]

Looking like just about every other three-wheeled, joystick-controlled, compressed air-driven car we've ever seen, the AIRPod by MDI will be available to lease in New Zealand soon. MDI has an agreement with IndraNet Technologies to market them in the land of the M?ori and, according to an article in the New Zealand Herald, they could be arriving on the island before the end of the year. If true, that would be the first market where the rolling alien marshmallow would appear. The MDI website says production is to begin in the Spring of 2009. Like many new ventures the vehicle has it critics and The Dog and Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson is unimpressed with the AIRPod's environmental claims. He rightly points out the the car isn't powered by air but by the energy that compresses the air. "It's a slightly more efficient way of wasting energy on inefficient trips. All you are doing is replacing traffic jams full of petrol-driven cars with traffic jams full of air-driven cars." He doesn't mention that the energy could be from renewable sources which mostly what is available in New Zealand. The AIR Pod is said to be capable of 43 Mph and has a range of around 137 miles and though it may run on air, don't call it an air car. H/T to Paul.

[Source: New Zealand Herald]

We've already been scolded this year not to call the air car the Air Car. The nomenclature is not getting any easier, but hopefully we've reached the last rebranding of the "Compressed Air Vehicle." An update to the MDI website tells us that the vehicle line up now has a "FlowAIR" theme. The models are now known as the OneFlowAIR (open top), MiniFlowAIR (a mini minivan) and CityFlowAIR (a truck-like vehicle with a bed). If you've been following the MDI story, you might recognize parts of these names from their previous incarnations as the OneCAT and MiniCAT.

An urban public transportation concept vehicle is now called the Multi FlowAIR and there is also the very odd looking AirPod, a concept that can be used to ferry people or goods in a little bubble. If outfitted for personal transportation, there are four seats - one in front for the driver, two adult seats looking backward and a seat for an infant somewhere, if I understand the French correctly.


[Source: MDI]

We heard that MDI, the creators of the AirCar - excuse us, the "Compressed Air Vehicle" - broke off all commercial relations with Miguel Celades, who had been carrying its commercial operations for a while. We tried multiple times to contact Mr. Celades for further explanations, but couldn't. So, we turned to MDI's new webpage and other sources for the information.

The good news is that MDI is still working on their vehicle and has taken some steps to get it on the road. The French environmental website Ecolo-Trader has unveiled a picture of the first MiniCAT model with regular car plates, which should mean it's road-worthy and has received all the legal requirements from the French Ministry of Industry. MDI's MiniCAT has an range of 80 km while running exclusively with compressed air and, thanks to a system which heats compressed air (using fuel), the range can be extended even further. According to the website, which refers to the Southern France newspaper, MDI is planning a second factory to increase output of the MiniCAT. The model will be on display for the Paris Motor Show and on sale in France at the beginning of 2009.

[Source: Ecolo-Trader]

Click on the image for more shots of the LEGO V8 engine

There has been a huge amount of interest in air powered cars since MDI began showing its creation off a few years back. There is a lot of engineering that went into these vehicles to make them as practical as possible and to offer a good deal of range. So, we were pretty darn impressed by the efforts of a small group of LEGO enthusiasts who have been making working engines using nothing but LEGO products. The engines are powered by compressed air, and actually power the vehicles that they are placed in. Want to see an example? Click here to follow the build process of one totally operational V8 engine made from LEGO blocks and components. As you'll see, the builder has decided to go with a simple pushrod design after testing various overhead cam styles. At present, the engine is running at over 1,700 revolutions per minute. Watch a video after the break.

Who would have thought that a concept as simple as compressed air could be a viable automotive technology? Sure, we all fill our tires with the stuff, but some automakers - MDI, for one - are considering compressed air as an energy carrier, like a battery. Whether a vehicle is engineered to run solely on air power or if the energy is stored as part of a hybrid system, the very air we breathe could provide propulsion for our vehicles.

What's Number 8?

Guy Negre and Louis Arnoux of MDI-Energy, the company behind the air car, are in Melbourne, Australia, demonstrating the air car technology to government and potential investors as part of a five year, $1.5 B plan to make and sell the cars in Australia, according to the Age. The first plant will be established in Australia and the cars are expected to be sold in Australia next year says the Age. That turnaround seems fast to me but I would guess those projections may include existing plants from Tata which MDI-Energy has an agreement to produce cars by August 2008.

What's the air car? The air car is a very promising green automotive technology that uses compressed air to propel a car. The Age says the cars can go 68 MPH and has a range of 93 miles or, if the compressed air is heated, potential ranges of thousands of miles (the distance from Perth to Brisbane) are possible. The car would sell for $8,000, the Age says, operating costs would be 80 percent less, the plant would mean 7,000 new jobs for Melbourne, and MDI-Energy aims to reduce car emission 20 percent over the next 10 years.

You can see why so many people are really looking forward to air cars hitting the streets.

Related:

• The Air Car Can Blow You Away
• India's Tata Motors and France's MDI sign agreement to build compressed air-powered cars
• Old video of air-powered car making the rounds at YouTube

[Source: The Age]

If you inflate a balloon and place it on a little toy car frame and then release it, it will race across the room until the balloon deflates. That is essentially the idea of engineer Guy Negre of MDI in . Popular Science magazine reports he is working with an Indian company to put about 6000 Air Cars on Indian streets by August 2008.

In case you've missed the previous stories (see below), Mr. Negre is using a piston-type engine to extract the stored energy in the compressed air to drive the wheels. This makes elegant sense. Why do we combust air with fuel in an engine? To get high pressure, of course! Compressed air at 4350 psi is powerful! And it takes energy to raise air to that pressure level with is actually 290 bar (290 times higher) than atmospheric pressure. Stored gas pressure is like stored energy in a battery. You put it in at one time, and you take it out later. Gasoline and diesel engines put energy in (the fuel) and take it out at the same time.

Compressing air to 290 bar is a relatively straightforward task. Take a reciprocal compressor, power it up, fill the Air Car's tanks in a few minutes, and then drive away. That takes energy, probably electric energy, to get that done. Petroleum use can be avoided but electric use is still needed. The car will even come with it's own on-board compressor. Refilling that way should take about 4 hours.

The range of the vehicle is said to be 125 miles and it has a top speed of 68 mph. I haven't gone through the thermodynamics of the full process but I gotta admit this is a pretty nifty way of circumventing petroleum use. If the compressor is green-powered (solar, water, wind, etc.), the Air Car will be too. And vice versa.

Related:

• A new agreement between Tata Motors and MDI bring the air-car closer to reality
• India's Tata Motors and France's MDI sign agreement to build compressed air-powered cars
• Old video of air-powered car making the rounds at YouTube

[Source: Popular Science, MDI]