Five-seat concept car runs on air (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News

An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a car that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at all in town.

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

It will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks built into the chassis.

The tanks can be filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car.

Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an on-board compressor will do the job.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7241909.stm

Note this saves a great deal of fuel simply due to the light weight -- whether or not it is "carbon-free" depends on where the energy to compress the air comes from. Conceivably, any source of electrical or mechanical energy could be used to operate a compression pump, so wind turbines (e.g.) could store renewable energy *directly* as compressed air, w/o going through the conversion to electricity and back again. More conventional sources, including hydro and nuclear, could be used to produce compressed air simply by connecting compressors to the grid, since the distribution network is already in place.

[liberal N proud]

1. That's inflating

:puffpiece:



:rofl:

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. Well, blow me up, Scottie ... send this back to engineering, please! n/t

[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Been "next year" for at least 5 yrs!

But you to can invest in this company which will make a fortune any day now.

:sarcasm:



Do you suppose the BBC actually wrote a new article or just dredged up a 4yr old article and reprinted it?

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Follow-up: BBC have MODIFIED and RETITLED the original article ...

India's Tata backs air-power car

An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a car in India that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at all in towns.

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500.

The project is being backed by the Indian conglomerate, Tata for an undisclosed sum. It says the technology may also be used for power generation.


(changes in bold)

The fact that Tata was planning such a vehicle was announced (and posted by a DUer) a few months ago. Not sure why the beeb chose to give Negre the spotlight in this article; perhaps the real news is he and Tata are joining forces, hoping to achieve together what they have yet to achieve separately.