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Coming soon, the car that runs on air: Peugeot Citroen unveil new 117mpg hybrid...
The London Daily Mail ^ | January 22, 2013 | Ruth Sunderland

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Travel
KEYWORDS: automobiles; automotive; cars; hybrids
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1 posted on 01/23/2013 9:15:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So a French car blows? Not surprised.


2 posted on 01/23/2013 9:16:48 PM PST by mnehring
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No thanks!


3 posted on 01/23/2013 9:16:50 PM PST by basil (basil)
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To: basil

I’d buy this car, assuming that the tanks can be repressurized repeatedly for the next ten years. It would knock off a fair bit off my costs.


4 posted on 01/23/2013 9:20:12 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Funny how they keep recycling old ideas. There used to be compressed-air locomotives running on industrial railroad tracks back when steam dominated the rails, too . . .


5 posted on 01/23/2013 9:24:03 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: mnehring

>>So a French car blows? Not surprised<<

Ya know, it is completely unfair you win the thread on the first post!!!

Next time, give others a chance.

Just for that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

Let it ear-whig you...

;) :)


6 posted on 01/23/2013 9:24:29 PM PST by freedumb2003 (I learned everything I needed to know about racism from Colin Powell)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

So it uses compressed air as a battery. Maybe that has some advantages over an electric hybrid. I don’t know. But air is not the primary energy source. Something will have to compress the air. And that will take energy.


7 posted on 01/23/2013 9:24:41 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Compressed air as an energy storage medium has a lot of possibilities. Also there are hydraulic hybrids that work on a similar principal that have proven well in tests by UPS, FedEx, garbage trucks, etc that do a lot of start-stop driving and can reclaim a good fraction of energy from braking.


8 posted on 01/23/2013 9:27:45 PM PST by bigbob
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I would be interested to know what kinds of technology they have in mind that makes this idea attractive after all these years it has been kicking around.


9 posted on 01/23/2013 9:29:26 PM PST by dr_lew
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To: Jonty30

I can only imagine what would happen to someone in that car who has a dust up with a regular sized sedan, or God forbid! a pickup.


10 posted on 01/23/2013 9:30:37 PM PST by basil (basil)
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To: basil

Kaboom!


11 posted on 01/23/2013 9:37:50 PM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America (IMPEACH OBAMA)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I worked on a project in college in the 80’s that would convert a 58 Cadillac coupe DeVille to run on compressed gas. It had an small diesel engine to compress the gas in a storage tank. Stopping would recharge the tanks.


12 posted on 01/23/2013 9:58:50 PM PST by ThomasThomas
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To: basil

Couldn’t be worse than a smart car! If Peugeot builds them like they used to it should hold up. My brother in law backed a moving van into my Mom’s 505’s door and it basically just pushed the car up the curb. They used to put a heavy steel tube in the doors.


13 posted on 01/23/2013 10:02:58 PM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: basil

The BMW smart car is rated as being able to stand up to North American accident standards, so it might not be too bad.

I’d need to see the ratings for this car though.


14 posted on 01/23/2013 10:07:36 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: bigbob

Had one of these on the farm I grew up on, it was always breaking down.

15 posted on 01/23/2013 10:10:40 PM PST by GraceG
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

In fact Citroen has a few things right. Their air (or hydraulic) suspension is simply superb and they are who first used it decades ago. I had an opportunity to drive their C5 wagon. It was an extremely smooth ride for a middle-sized sedan. It negotiates unpaved outback in such a way you almost feel like it is a merc on the highway.


16 posted on 01/23/2013 10:32:59 PM PST by cunning_fish
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To: mnehring; freedumb2003

What will they call this car? The PHART as in personal hot air rolling transit?


17 posted on 01/23/2013 11:01:17 PM PST by miele man
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To: miele man

:-)

If the BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit then what would the nickname for the system be in Fresno?

For some reason I’ve always found this really funny.


18 posted on 01/23/2013 11:11:46 PM PST by Aria ( 2008 & 2012 weren't elections - they were coup d'etats.)
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To: Aria
If the BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit then what would the nickname for the system be in Fresno?

For some reason I’ve always found this really funny.

Friend lived out there awhile. Natives didn't appreciate him calling it Frisco....

19 posted on 01/23/2013 11:26:49 PM PST by jwsea55
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Video - Air powered cars



20 posted on 01/24/2013 12:10:09 AM PST by preacher (Communism has only killed 100 million people: Let's give it another chance!)
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