Berkeley Engineers Have Some Bad News About Air Cars

cheeks5965 writes "We've argued before over compressed air vehicles, a.k.a. air cars. Air cars are an enchanting idea, providing mobility with zero fuel consumption or environmental impacts. The NYTimes' Green Inc. blog reports that the reality is less rosy. New research from UC Berkeley and ICF International puts a period at the end of the discussion, showing that compressed air is a very poor fuel, storing less than 1% of the energy in gasoline; air cars won't get you far, with a range of just 29 miles in typical city driving; and despite appearing green the vehicles are worse for the environment, with twice the carbon footprint as gasoline vehicles, from producing the electricity used to compress the air. Given these barriers, manufacturer claims should definitely be taken with a grain of salt."

Comments

Re:At least they don't pollute the city directly

[Sique]

They were first developed to be used in environments, where sparks could lead to an explosion (e.g. chemical plants or refineries). There you can't use electric cars.

Re:Zero Emissions are worse??

[commodore64_love]

>>>all those Prius owners don't really seem to care about Lithum strip mines

Prius cars don't use lithium. They use nickle and hydride, and when disposed are no more harmful than throwing-away coins and water. (Although recycling the metal would be better.)