Ferretlover wrote:What type of energy will be required to compress that air?
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
JRP3 wrote:Air car is a joke, it doesn't actually run on air, it runs on whatever fuel is used to compress that air,
Ferretlover wrote:JRP3 wrote:Air car is a joke, it doesn't actually run on air, it runs on whatever fuel is used to compress that air,
I guess I do have to note when I am being just a little bit sarcastic!
Ferretlover wrote:JRP3 wrote:Air car is a joke, it doesn't actually run on air, it runs on whatever fuel is used to compress that air,
I guess I do have to note when I am being just a little bit sarcastic!
Peugeot has revealed plans to begin selling the first air powered car next year.
Based on a Peugeot 208, it will combine a normal engine with a radical new system that runs on compressed air.
The firm says the car could reduce petrol bills by 80% when driven in cities.
The system works by using a normal internal combustion engine, special hydraulics and an adapted gearbox along with compressed air cylinders that store and release energy. This enables it to run on petrol or air, or a combination of the two.
Air power would be used solely for city use, automatically activated below 43mph and available for ‘60 to 80 per cent of the time in city driving’. By 2020, the cars could be achieving an average of 117 miles a gallon, the company predicts.
The air compression system can re-use all the energy normally lost when slowing down and braking. The motor and a pump are in the engine bay, fed by a compressed air tank underneath the car, running parallel to the exhaust.
The revolutionary system will be able to be installed on any normal family car without altering its external shape or size or reducing the boot size, provided the spare wheel is not stored there. From the outside, an air-powered car will look identical to a conventional vehicle.
A spokesman said: ‘We are not talking about weird and wacky machines. These are going to be in everyday cars.’
One charges the battery when I touch the brake pedal
Poordogabone wrote: my step father once owned a Citroen 2CV (2 horse power) i think top speed was about 45 miles/hour going downhill. 2-stroke engine, extremely low maintenance and about 75 miles/gallon.
At 4 a.m., bleary-eyed and barely awake, I spoke with Cyril Nègre on the other side of the world. He was Skyping with me from France, where the company established by his father, Motor Development International (MDI), was quietly working on a form of transportation technology that could change the way we navigate our cities.
MDI’s product is an air-powered car called Airpod, and it looks like something that belongs on The Jetsons — half smart car, half futuristic bubble-cycle. If you’re a fan of Shark Tank reruns, you may have seen the April 2015 episode that featured Pat Boone and Ethan Tucker pitching the Airpod. The duo eventually secured $5 million in investment funds for Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM), the US licensee for MDI’s technology.
Since then, news has been scant about the Airpod in the US. ZPM’s Facebook page hasn’t been updated since April, and even then, the post was about SpaceX's successful Dragon launch.
When I connected with Cyril, I expected to discuss some of the delays facing ZPM’s US development. I didn’t expect to see news on MDI’s website the next day about the passing of Cyril’s father, Guy Nègre, the engineer who wanted to help save the planet.
Here’s the status on Airpod — and the innovations that are close to becoming a reality.
The Air Powered Car: What Is An Airpod?
Guy Nègre — inventor, car enthusiast, staunch environmentalist, and former Formula 1 racing engineer — loved the freedom afforded by cars. Back in 2002, he told Reuters, “I'm a firm believer that the car means freedom and people will not give up freedom, no matter what it's doing to the environment … So the only way to save the planet is to come up with a car that doesn't wreck it."
The Airpod is MDI’s solution to planet-wrecking transportation. Currently in its second iteration, the Airpod 2.0 is a four-wheel vehicle with an 80 kilometer per hour (50 mph) maximum speed and 120 kilometer (75 mile) range. “It’s possible to extend the range using a dual engine mode,” Cyril tells me, “and with half a litre of petrol plus the air tank, we will be able to achieve around 400-450 kilometers (249-280 miles) in range.”
Naturally, the Airpod’s attention-grabber was its engine that runs on compressed air — so why incorporate an engine that can also use petrol? “The first [Airpod] was good for car sharing or renting cars, but not for private people," Cyril says. "So we decided to modify the car, and now, we are in the process of building the molds for first production.”
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