Posted on 01/23/2013 9:14:57 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If you have ever grimaced at your petrol bill and dreamed of a car that runs on fresh air, your prayers are about to be answered.
French car giant PSA Peugeot Citroen believes it can put an air-powered vehicle on the road by 2016.
Its scientists say it will knock 45 per cent off fuel bills for an average motorist. And when driving in towns and cities costs could be slashed by as much as 80 per cent because the car will be running on air for four-fifths of the time.
The system works by using a normal internal combustion engine, special hydraulics and an adapted gearbox along with compressed air cylinders that store and release energy. This enables it to run on petrol or air, or a combination of the two.
Air power would be used solely for city use, automatically activated below 43mph and available for ‘60 to 80 per cent of the time in city driving’. By 2020, the cars could be achieving an average of 117 miles a gallon, the company predicts.
The air compression system can re-use all the energy normally lost when slowing down and braking. The motor and a pump are in the engine bay, fed by a compressed air tank underneath the car, running parallel to the exhaust.
The revolutionary new ‘Hybrid Air’ engine system – the first to combine petrol with compressed air – is a breakthrough for hybrid cars because expensive batteries will no longer be needed...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What’s next, a perpetual motion machine that doesn’t use energy? Bravo Sierra. There is NO free lunch.
>>Had one of these on the farm I grew up on, it was always breaking down. <<
So you had my ex-wife too, eh?
Nowadays she is fat as all heck and someone else’s problem. Like old farm equipment.
>>Natives didn’t appreciate him calling it Frisco...<<
Which is why you are honor bound to refer it so whenever possible!
Gunner, did you read the article?
If just 20% of the cars were this way gas would tumble for the rest of us.
BTW, this 1997 Volga sedan is a deeply restyled Plymouth Valiant from earlier 1960s. Powered with V8 engine it is not a best example of green gas milage.
The SMART car is loosely associated with Mercedes, not BMW.
There now is a Bavarian hit squad looking for you.
Heck, the government in Washington will get 500 MPG.
If they can make it work without tax subsidies and people want to buy them, then I think its great. There are definitely places like warehouses and cities where these would be useful.
“Compressed air as an energy storage medium has a lot of possibilities.”
Let’s look at how battery tech has progressed vs. compressed air tech.
Battery tech has blossomed, compressed air tech has not.
Coming soon, cheaper batteries that can be moulded into various shapes that hold more energy.
Compressed air won’t cut it.
The smart car has no ability to absorb energy. It simply transfers all the force to the occupants. At least the bodies will be identifiable.
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