Hi Lars-ss:

___There are a few that do this already. I know of a guy over at EV-World that is doing this for his RAV4-EV and pays nothing at all other then the installation of the solar package on his home. Of course a RAV4-EV cost upwards of ~ $42,500 back in 02 w/ an ~ 125 mile range and 0 – 60 in ~ 18 seconds

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net

If cars are smart enough they will wait until night to charge when the load is so low that some generating plants go off the grid and run idle because stopping them is very expensive and a long process to start them, so all this energy is being wasted by idling power plants at night, power companies would be able to make more money and people would be making use of otherwise wasted energy. Better still, the power company should have a carrier signal that sends a basic message about their load or capacity or something so that smart appliances will run when there really is actually idle capacity.

Even if you use gasoline to produce electricity it is more efficient than burning electricity in lots of small engines. Large engines are more efficient at generating power and that's just a fact when it comes to ICE generating equipment since there's no consideration of weight to power ratios. At the other end cars are using electricity much more efficiently than they are using gasoline when they are moving around, along with the pollution being moved out of the city and to the generating plants that can be far from people if need be.

At the end of the day we may need more electricity in total, but keep in mind that we've barely scratched the surface when it comes to exploiting all the renewable, clean power that's available since so far what's been cheapest has been to exploit the reserves of hydrocarbons from underground, now it's time to move on, but at the same time become more efficient, so at the end of the switch over to renewable energy we'll still be using the same or less as we are currently, hopefully doing a lot more than it is now, such as powering our vehicles.

The Air Cars will charge at home in 3-4 hours by plugging in and running the air-motor via the electric motor to compress air into the tanks, or you can fill them at a station with already compressed air in 2-3 minutes. Range is highly dependent on the speed you drive, so going 100km/hr you'll go about 100km, but going 50 you'll go about 300km, and if you go really slow, like 25-30km/hr you'll get 600+ km on a fill. I think it will be cheaper to fill them at stations than at home, but it allows for whatever is more convenient or suitable.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
'97 Prius Simulation Prius inner workings

Erick,
The air car technology is interesting but I wonder what the crash rating would be?
The reason for my curiosity is because its over 1,000 lbs lighter than my Civic. Its maximum load is almost as much as the car weighs.
Safety is very important for my family.

The "Family Sedan" maximum range is just under 200 miles according to its website http://www.theaircar.com/ this is pretty good but I'd like to see this figure possibly reduced in exchange for a more safe chassis.
Or,
To keep the range and make it as a hybrid technology: Electric assisting the air motor or some other arrangement the point being to put it in a safer, larger, heavier chassis.

There is also a concern of riding with a tank holding air at over 4,300PSI.
I've read about these tanks and understand that in case of accident they crack and safely release the pressure.
I'm not sure if this is so in a more severe accident where there may have otherwise been survivors.
For example an oxygen cylinder used for welding is pressurised to about half the figure and becomes a dangerous, distructive missile if the valve is breached.

I'm sure all of these issues would be fully tested and addressed before it hits the market.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

I am very interested in the results of safety tests with these vehicles too. Supposedly the technology used for their frames is very well proven in the aerospace industry and is not suitable for large scale manufacturing, but works fine in smaller volume production. It seems to be aluminum tubes that are glued together and clamped while the glue cures. It results in a very strong frame capable of absorbing a lot of force while remaining rigid enough to keep occupants safe. People often site airplane crashes as often disastrous, but we forget that most crashes that involve a lot of destruction happen at hundreds of miles per hour, as compared to these vehicles, mainly for use within a city going no more than 110km/hr if they ever reach that speed.

However, real world tests are the only sure way to know how well they perform, and they have yet to come, as far as I know. As for the safety concerns about the tanks, they have taken all safety issues into account, the tanks themselves are proven technology used as natural gas tanks, mostly on busses all over North America, they are not metallic tanks, so they can't explode like a metal tank can upon impact, they are spun carbon fiber so they have built-in weakness for safety so that if the tank gets distorted in any way during an accident there will be a predictable air-release function that won't cause any serious injury by way of explosion or the rocket effect of a ruptured valve. I'm sure having high pressure air in a vehicle is a lot safer than high pressure methane (natural gas) and they are both stored within similar pressure ranges. I would rather air in any kind of crash, there is less chance of the escaping gas causing more harm, such as with methane it can explode, or even gasoline for that matter can (and does, quite regularly) burn people alive in their cars after a crash.

As for electric assisting the air motor, it is, that's the hybrid technology in it. It will use a CVT as the drivetrain and can recuperate energy via battery charging or via air compression once the battery is full. They are working on a tri-fuel hybrid that can burn gasoline in an external combustion chamber that will produce a high pressure (exhaust) gas that can be fed into the air engine as the pressurized air is. This will make possible a vehicle with a long range of pollution free driving within the city and also capable of driving 2000km on a tank of gasoline for long trips. A bit like the plug-in hybrids you will be able to use gasoline alone, or plug it in (or fill up with air at a station) for the low cost, high efficiency operation within the city. The engine is using the power in the gasoline much more efficiently than in an ICE, but it will also be burning it in a much cleaner manner, a near perfect burn, as compared to the ICE where air must be pumped in after the combustion, then catalytically manipulated to produce somewhat cleaned up exhaust.

They are also planning busses and boats, along with barges that can be tied up and generate compressed air by gathering the power from the river flowing below it. The air can be piped to shore fill stations or used by boats that run the air engines. I think one of the first places that will see some of these systems put in place in Spain since they have signed many of the early contracts with MDI. Will be very interesting to see how things develop, especially in terms of the safety of their designs in real life.

2001 Prius Photos       2005 Prius Photos
'97 Prius Simulation Prius inner workings