Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Forget Hybrids, Prepare . . . For Air.

This blog is about things I find interesting and sometimes someone has a great idea that is worth noting. One such idea is this: what if a car could run on compressed air instead of oil-based fuels? What would be the benefits? Here are some:

1. Costs way less to get around
2. Better for the environment.
3. Less initial cost for the vehicle itself.



Air cars are something you may not have heard about, but you will soon. The first ones are said to be introduced into the U.S. in 2009 or 2010. MDI, a French company has been working on perfecting compressed air engines for automobiles since the 90's and has several working prototypes. More impressively they have signed a deal to produce cars with Tata Motors, one of India's biggest automotive corporations to begin producing cars very soon.



The cars still have various engineering issues to work out but are looking rather impressive. Will this be the end of the gasoline engine? I don't think so, at least not completely. It does mean however a much more ecologically sound means of transportation will eventually take much of the marketshare away from gas powered cars, especially as the technology improves and becomes mainstream. My next car won't be air powered, and probably not the one after that. But the one after that most likely will be. Yours may be too.

May Light increase!

2 comments:

Jay Boaz said...

I'd love if they could get the idea to work. From what you describe (I haven't watched the videos, maybe later) it sounds like a great idea.

Jay

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.