Car Powered by Compressed Air

gripperzipper writes "CNN reports that a Korean company created a small car powered by compressed air. ENERGINE created its PHEV, or Pneumatic-Hybrid Electric Vehicle, which uses a two-stroke compressed air engine for start, acceleration, and uphill climbs. The car switches to an electric motor when its speed reaches 20-25 km/h (32-40 mi/h). Although major auto manufacturers have invested heavily in gasoline hybrids, it will be interesting to see if a market will open for this type of vehicle." Update: 04/04 17:18 GMT by T : Reader Tapsu spotted the incongruity here, writing "Interesting post, but the speed conversion has gone wrong way: "20-25 km/h (32-40 mi/h)". ... Thus the correct speed range in miles would be something like 12-15 mi/h."

Comments

Still energy

[Zorilla]

But does it take more electricity to compress the air into the tank than it does to just run the car on electric power? Sounds like just another degree of separation from energy we'll be getting from oil, anyway.

Re:Still energy

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does this type of comment end up in every alternative energy thread, and get modded up as 'Insightful'?

Centralizing the energy generation can take advantage of (a) economies of scale for better efficiency and (b) a varied portfolio of generating sources like hydro. For electric or fuel cell cars, this allows you to take advantage of the network effect of everyone already having electric wires as a means of transporting energy. I agree, compressed air is a bit silly b/c of its poor energy storage, but to knock it because of off-site production is simply wrong.

In this era of high oil prices, why are people so quick to complain about any alternative fuel?

Wrong conversion

[evn]

when its speed reaches 20-25 km/h (32-40 mi/h).

The car swtiches to electric when it reaches 25 km/hr according to the Energine website which is actually more like 15 miles per hour.

Already Been Done!

[phobos13013]

A completely compressed air vehicle has been made before and is a production model called the air car by a company MDI in italy. They have produced models for street use, you can see a video of it here.

Re:Say goodbye to free air

[Tristandh]

Well, it only uses compressed air for accelerating and climbing up hills. So it does make sense to use air: short burst of acceleration on air (much power), steady driving on battery (lower power)

AirCON not Aircar

[dbowden]

Yeah -- I've been watching this guy for a couple years, and have come to the conclusion that he's a complete con-artist.

If you read the website carefully, you'll note that the specifications he displays here http://www.theaircar.com/models.html for the various models (range, top speed, refuel rates, etc) are all based on theoretical measurements made by guessing how much improvement he can get from changing a number of things in his current design. The current design has been tested for a total of 7.2 km. He gets his 200-300km range by extrapolating based on his guesses. See http://www.theaircar.com/tests.html (scroll down to "Mileage comparison between the taxi in development and the final car") for the true specifications, and note that after the top row, they're all extrapolations. He's basically saying he should get x% increase from this change, and y% from that change, and that means the "improved" engine will get (x+y)% better performance.

His site hasn't changed in at least a year -- meaning those figures haven't been updates with actual test results, and I don't think they ever will be. It's real easy to guess how much improvement various changes may make. It's not so easy to get that improvement out of them.

Next, note that he's selling "licenses" to build factories to produce the car. This is his real goal: Grab some $$ from investors before they find out he has no real product. He's a lot like the guys selling free energy based on concepts that violate the laws of thermodynamics, but will have a working model "real soon now".

Go ahead and watch this guy -- it's entertainment at least, -- but don't give him any of your money until he can back up his specifications with real world tests.