A Car that Runs on Air
It sounds ridiculous, but it is reality. French investor Guy Negre has developed a car that runs on compressed air. And far from being some prototype that will never see the light of day, his 5-seater car will be in production in less than a year.
The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.
It is driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks built into the chassis, and the tanks can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car. Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an on-board compressor will do the job.
For long journeys the compressed air driving the pistons can be boosted by a fuel burner which heats the air so it expands and increases the pressure on the pistons. The burner will use all kinds of liquid fuel.
The designers say on long journeys the car will do the equivalent of 120mpg. In town, running on air, it will be cheaper than that.
"The first buyers will be people who care about the environment. It also has to be economical," says Negre.
He says there's no issue with safety - if the air-car crashes the air tanks won't shatter - they will split with a very loud bang. "The biggest risk is to the ears."
Terry Spall from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers says: "I really hope he succeeds. It is a really brave experiment in producing a sustainable car."
But he said he was interested to see how the car would fare with safety tests and how much it would appeal to a public conditioned to expect luxury fittings adding to the weight of the vehicle.
The car will initially only be produced in India under licence to manufacturer Tata, who recently unveiled the £1,200 Nano car.
So although it sounds like science fiction, there may soon be cars running on air. How much they help the environment is another matter however, as energy is still required to compress the air and in the car's manufacture. Unless this energy comes from renewable sources, the car's green claims are subject to doubt, although it would certainly reduce pollution in cities.
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