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 Māori 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]

We have shown you the air-car before, and you may have seen it on TV if you watched the Discovery Channel series, Future Car. If you did, you witnessed them erroneously refer to the possibility of perpetual motion in reference to the air-car. While there is no perpetual motion at work here, there may be production plans in the works. An agreement between Tata Motors and MDI, creators and patent-holders for the air-car and it's powertrain may just bring the air-car to market.

Details of the air-car peg the top-speed at 68 mph, and a range of 200-300 kilometers (up to 186 miles). The tanks containing the compressed air can be refilled at special stations, or using the on-board electric compressor in 3-4 hours. The vehicle is expected to see use primarily in urban environments. Will it ever hit U.S. shores? We'll see, right?

[Source: Business Week via Hugg]

I remember watching this episode of Beyond Tomorrow a while back. There were two competing designers working on cars powered by compressed air. The idea is far from new, but these designers were actually taking the time and money that is necessary to develop their ideas to a commercial stage. The idea seems sound, as the tank of compressed air is really a "battery" of sorts that transfers its energy to a motor of some sort. The Air Car, as seen here, discussed here at ABG, here on a story I located via Hugg and on Discovery Channel's recent episode of Future Cars, uses pistons actuated by the compressed air. Some other designs use a type of rotary engine to transfer the power to the wheels.

Focusing on the Air Car for a moment, it has a maximum top speed of 68 mph and can travel 125 miles on one tank of compressed air. This machine is rather small, and suitable for commuting and urban purposes more than anything else. Further designs could feature larger air tanks and engines for faster travel and longer distances.

Does this make more sense than hydrogen? After all, hydrogen is just a carrier of energy, as is the tank of compressed air. Hydrogen must be compressed and carried in special containers, as does the air. A small motor, even one that is powered by solar electricity, could turn a compressor to help keep the air cylinders or tanks "charged up", or inflated. What are your opinions of these ideas?

[Source: Air Car via Celsias via Hugg]

I was pretty excited about the show "Future Cars" on Discovery show when I found out about it. And, thankfully, I have not been disappointed. I wrote about the show before it actually started, and we are now three weeks into the series. The last episode, number three, is of particular interest to us at AutoblogGreen, because it covered the types of fuels that we are likely to see in the coming years. All of the usual suspects were included: ethanol, biodiesel, hybrids, pure electrics, hydrogen, solar and even compressed air were all considered, and got roughly equal coverage. Left off the list were biobutanol or any of the other bioalcohol-based fuels.

Linton, a frequent poster on Hugg, has posted his summary of each episode, and here is a link to his coverage of the third. I also noticed that the show incorrectly referred to the air-powered car as perpetual motion. The official website of the show, which can be found here, has more information on the interns at GM that we originally posted about.

As the banner at the top of this posting shows, the last part of this four-part series will be shown next Wednesday, the 28th of February, at 8pm on Discovery Channel. The show will be replayed later that night as well.

EDIT: After rewatching the episodes of Future Car, I was a bit alarmed at the inaccuracies of their depictions of ethanol, biodiesel and air. Ethanol was presented as merely a form of fuel derived from corn. As we all know, corn is one of the worst foodstocks to use for ethanol production. Also, biodiesel was almost completely describes as vegetable oil. In fact, that point was hammered! "ON VEGETABLE OIL" was shown on title screens something like three times. I already mentioned the fact that they described the compressed air car as perpetual power, which is not the case. Anyway, what damage will be done to each industry? Probably not too much... but miseducation is never a good thing.

Related:

• Starting Feb. 7th - Future Cars on Discovery Channel
• GM and Discovery Channel offer design process of fuel-cell vehicles in new show
• Futurecar report on the GM "Skateboard" car on YouTube

[Source: Discovery Channel]

Funny how what's old becomes new again, thanks to the archiving power of sites like YouTube. A seven-and-a-half minute video clip from CNN (a global or international version of the news network, by the looks of it) that was posted to YouTube in February just got picked up by MobileMag. The video is of a minicar that runs on compressed air. The technology is the work of Guy Negre, MDI president who used to work on F1 engines and his son Cyril. They have been working on the Air Car in the south of France since 1997 and have over 30 patents on the technology.

Even though the YouTube video was uploaded in February 2006, the original CNN broadcast was from 2004 (The announcer says the vehicles should be on the road by the end of 2004, and the scroll across the bottom speaks of a major suicide bombing at the U.S. military's "Green Zone" in Baghdad). MobileMag is ebullient about the car, which from the video sounds great ($6,000 for a car that can go 110 kmh and doesn't pollute? Sign me up), but the reporter focuses more on calling the car "radical" than on the obvious problems with the car (the cost and energy required to compress the air at home, the range, etc.). While the news is old, it is interesting to see how YouTube can help our collective memory for what kind of car tech was hot in 2004. The Air Car's website from MDI is here.

[Source: YouTube, suggested by Jason Kapadia]

Author Joel Barker of the website and book called Five Regions of the Future points us to the Air Car, which uses compressed air (and no emissions) to run the engine. The company producing the car, Moteur Developpment International, says they will begin selling the cars in Barcelona, but they are not available yet. Looking at the claims the company makes on its website, these are amazing vehicles for people who need to go short distances regularly (i.e., most commuters and city dwellers). The company claims that recharging the compressed air tanks will take two or three minutes at a gas station (once the network is in place) or three or four minutes when plugged into the electrical grid. A recharge should cost 1.5 Euros (about $2US). This seems ridiculously easy and cheap to me. The air cars will be sold in various engine and body types and can go 220 km/h. The hybrid engines shift to run on gasoline for longer drives and at speeds over 50 km/h. Perhaps this technology really is too good to be true. These air-powered vehicles were supposed to go on sale in 2002. The company’s FAQ was updated in December of 2005 and claims the cars will be going on sale soon. [Source: FIve Regions of the Future]