MDI air car

[chadspad]

I did a search on here for this car but couldnt find anything. I read about it in a French newspaper several months ago, now its got the go ahead to be produced in India. What is everyones opinion on this car? Seems too good to be true doesnt it? Would you trade in your 'standard' car for one of these? How would the governments make back the money they will lose on petrol sales?
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MDI_Air_Car

[Organic_Linker]

This is the official site from what i can tell, though it doesnt really tell you much

http://www.theaircar.com/acf/air-cars/air-cars.html

found this too

http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/pictures/

I think these cars, and ones like it will be the way of the future, though I'm sure the cronies in westminister will find new taxes on something, air maybe

[MKG]

Presumably the energy source to run the compressor to compress the air to run the car is also emission-free?

[Martin]

it's a "lets attract investors" load of old cobblers!

[Organic_Linker]

I disagree, its a boundary pushing product, that could change things around the world!

[Sky]

It sounds fantastic!

[chadspad]

I agree with you guys, I think its amazing, it could make a huge difference

[Martin]

it is "fantastic" in the true sense of the word - a fantasy! - a bit like roof-mounted wind turbines, I'd love them to work..............unfortunately, the immutable laws of physics get in the way.
As the technology stands at present, there are far better, more efficient ways of storing energy - it is a method of energy storage, no more, no less - and as it stands, it is a spectacularly "lossy" way of doing so - and rather expensive, because of the technology involved.
You still have to generate the energy used, and make up for all the losses involved in such a system..........
There are whole "renewable industries" springing up to take advantage of widespread ignorance on both sides of the Atlantic, driven by the desperate need to find solutions to our problems - unfortunately, that is resulting in lots of people making nice fat livings off total "no hope" schemes by milking either the government (in the UK), or investors (worldwide) - promising the world, and delivering bog all.............
What we need is pure research into energy storage, by direct government funding of universities, rather than the present "smoke and mirrors" mix of government spin, and big-business dishonesty!
Believe me, if the idea had any "legs" at all, they'd be swamped with investors, they wouldn't need weasel-worded websites with sections like this - http://www.theaircar.com/acf/investors/investors.html
Why should I care? - I try to give my clients honest advice about renewables, and look very carefully at each and every "new" technology in the hope that there's another new one to offer - this isn't it!

[MKG]

I'm right behind Martin on this one. The zero-waste energy source doesn't exist, hasn't ever existed, nor will it ever exist. Pandering to people's innate desire to be "clean" by telling them that they can have a car which doesn't directly affect the atmosphere is, in my view, criminally irresponsible. If it was possible, you wouldn't find these marvellously inventive people on the net - they'd be keeping totally schtumm until they were protected by a million patent applications. And then, of course, they wouldn't need minor investors, because the Fords of this world would be queueing up to buy the technology so that they could sit on it.

Thre's no such thing as a free lunch.

[Organic_Linker]

I dont think, on reading up, that they are claiming a "The zero-waste energy source" - what they are claiming, as with hybrids etc is a reduced waste, yes you still have to fill them, but relatively speaking you can reduce the emmissions.

I think anything that highlights the issue and provokes discussion can only be good in the long run. Products like this and the hype surrounding them may just push a future "einstein" or "Ford" to actually develop something groundbreaking. Im sure when people firsth mentioned, or proposed many things we take for granted today they were ridiculed, laughed at and even bullied but thankfully they didnt give in :)

[Martin]

Let's start again - to get the air to drive the car, you have to compress it, and store it - you have to use power to do so, and lots of it - a great deal gets wasted in "thermodynamics" - an air car is approximately one-third as efficient as a battery car.......so you'll have to generate THREE TIMES as much power as you would for a battery car.........
It's not a case of unnecessary ridicule or "bullying" - it's pointing out what is no more than a moneymaking scam!
Chapter and verse here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_car

[Jandra]

I agree with Martin in that it doesn't save any energy and probably even uses more than a regular design motor.

But I disagree about it neccesarily being a kind of scam. There is much to be won by having cars which have zero emissions while driving. Especially in cities where air quality is under pressure it would make a huge difference in reducing the localized pollution. Compression could take place using electricity and that could be renewable.

To me it is clear that this is not per se a green car, but the concept does have possibilities and could certainly help solve real problems of urban air pollution. If it works as advertised, of course...

Just my 2 cents.

Jandra

[Martin]

You can run THREE electric cars for the same amount of energy as you'd need to run ONE air powered car - same zero emissions where it's being used! Using an air car just does not make sense on ANY count!

[Sky]

Oh b*gger!
And it sounded really promising

[Jandra]

Aha. I guess this car has the bonus of also being able to run on conventional fuel, thus giving a person the range they are used to. Nevertheless it seems less attractive to spend muchtime and energy in devoloping this.

Admittedly I'm not that well versed in electric cars, but to my knowledge electric cars tend to have a fairly limited range. Not the hybrid cars, of course, but those seem to be questionable in 'green-ness'.

I've heard they are developing a hybrid car which has a generator aboard to charge the batteries. The car will only have an electromotor. I understand it will allow for the possiblity to charge the car via the net, so you would have a good combination.
- You can charge the car using green electricity
- You get to re-use any energy lost in braking as that is converted and channeled back into the batteries.
- If you have to (want to) cover long distances you can burn fossil fuels as necessary.

Having said that, the best way is to minimize car miles and save the energy.

Jandra