100-MPG Air-Powered Car Headed To US Next Year

An anonymous reader sends us to Popular Mechanics for word on a New York automaker with plans to introduce a US version of the air-powered car, with which India's Tata Motors made a splash last year. Zero Pollution Motors plans a sub-$18,000, 6-passenger vehicle that can hit 96 mph and gets over 100 MPG, using an untried dual engine — the air-powered motor being supplemented by a second (unspecified) engine that would kick in above 35 MPH. The company estimates that "a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gallons of either conventional petrol, ethanol, or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles." The vehicle could be introduced to the market as early as 2009.

Comments

Enhancements

[arizwebfoot]

So, if I eat a lot of hot chili, have my whole family eat a lot of chili, trap the resulting methane gas, and add that to the air tank, would I be able to boost my mph to say 150 mph?

Cattle ranchers could make a huge boon in trapped methane.

Tesla and big 3

[WindBourne]

Personally, I am far more interested in what Musk is up to. He is trying to work with the big 3 to get a low cost electric car out the door by 2010. This would be something that is in the range of $20-30K, and with a similar distance to the roadster of 200 miles (very doubtful that it would have the workmanship or the performance of the white star, let alone the roadster). To me, any one of these would be worth it.

Ugly

[WebmasterNeal]

I understand that they make these cars to be aerodynamic but do they really need to be so damned ugly? I would rather drive a car at 35mpg on only gas than be seen in something like this (and many of the other "high mpg" cars.)