Compressed Air Energy: April 2008 Archives

There are numerous alternative energies that are being developed and even refined for automobiles: natural gas, electric batteries, hydrogen... and we're hearing rumors of a couple new energy sources: salt water, regenerative braking and, more imminently: compressed air.

The head of Nissan was interviewed on CNBC in April, 2008 and he stated that hybrids are the best technology today, but the electric vehicle will be the standard by 2010.

I had a call from one of our readers, however, that pointed out that a new energy is hitting the market in 2008...compressed air. And it's not coming from the US or Japan, but those energetic engineers in India. Actually it was developed based on technology as old as the late 1800s, when compressed air was used in street cars and locomotives. By 1932, compressed air cars were cars were build using compressed air -- both 3-wheel and 4-wheel models. And in 1983, Terry Miller patented a car that ran on compressed air.

Compressed Air

This year, 2008, Tata Motors and Motor Development International (MDI) of Luxembourg have jointly developed the world's first commercially-viable prototype of a compressed air car, named OneCAT.

Tata Motors is a multinational corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is India's largest passenger automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturing company. Part of the Tata Group, it is one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles. www.tata.com

MDI Air Car Designers of the car with a compressed air engine. Includes details of the technology and images of the car. theaircar.com

Zero Pollution Motors - Air Car

This is the expected performance of the revolutionary compressed air vehicle that Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) is introducing to North America. zeropollutionmotors.us

More info at Wikipedia ... with a whole passel of "future automobiles" listed!