Sam Spades air mobile!

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Company looks to bring air-powered cars to US

Hey Sam! Looks like your car is on the way!

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.

Note: Sam has spoken highly of this idea for some time.
 

glhs837

Power with Control
This is the quote I take away from this...

Engineering experts, however, are skeptical of the technology, saying it is clouded by the caveat that compressing air is notoriously energy intensive
 

muttdog

New Member
Saw one of these cars on modern marvels. pretty cool car. They said once they make a small enough compressor, the whole car will be self contained.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Until I saw that comment in the article about how inefficient it is, I thought it was a great idea. Oh well. That never occurred to me. The idea of storing potential energy without requiring a battery that will wear out seemed pretty cool.

I guess it still astounds me that we're STILL trying to make a decent electric car. I went to high school in the mid 70's with a guy who drove one from his Dad's company. Thirty years later and we still can't make a decent electric car!
 

glhs837

Power with Control
I believe its mainly a density problem, the amount of weight you need to store the energy becomes prohibitive.

Meaning that the batteries required to store a 12 gallon gas tank worth of juice weigh a LOT, and hauling that weight costs you energy too.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Until I saw that comment in the article about how inefficient it is, I thought it was a great idea. Oh well. That never occurred to me. The idea of storing potential energy without requiring a battery that will wear out seemed pretty cool.

I guess it still astounds me that we're STILL trying to make a decent electric car. I went to high school in the mid 70's with a guy who drove one from his Dad's company. Thirty years later and we still can't make a decent electric car!

Sure we can. We just struggle with energy storage.

Did you know the first trucks way back in the day, in the 1900's and 1910's, we electric because no one could make a gas engine truck with enough torque? Yup, huge rows of batteries under the beds. Heavy as hell.

The basic problem is that gasoline and diesel are TREMENDOUS fuels; lots of energy, easily stored and handled. Hard to beat.
 
Top