General Music Chat

Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range

The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it's the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.





Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.



And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.


FULL STORY:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html?series=19

Damn Craig!

Just when I was considering entering into a venture with Philbymon to develop a Methane powered car!

I have 11 acres of swamp loaded with the sh*t, and Philby, the gas giant....

well, you know. (and if ya don't, just ask Greenie)

This is the kind of luck I've been having lately.

Why don't they just keep Capitalism in the good ol' U.S.A where it belongs.

whinin' howlin'

That's it! No more stories of my questionable past for YOU, HJ!!! That one is indelibly marked on your brainpan, isn't it?

I mean...jeez, dude...I only did it once, & to a very deserving victim, at that!

The Boy and I are gonna jam with our new guitar player tonight! Cin is cookin' up some hotdogs with Chile and kraut for us to eat before we go over to our drummer's house. Might wash it all down with a Guinness. Should be interesting to see how well he performs under "Philby Conditions".

I betcha' we'll be,
Howlin'

You guys are nuts.
The SUV is already hot air powered in Kilgore, I see those fake boobed soccer moms pouring it into their cell phones as they go down the road every day.
When that air car can pull my Jeep out of Howlin's swamp I will buy one.

I wouldn't want to be in an accident with it, though...it looks so tiny & flimsy!!

Yo Philby,

Did'ya ever ride a motasickel?

Well, yeah, HJ...didn't wanna be in an accident with that, either...had to dodge some pretty tricky situations, too, that I doubt I could do with 4 wheels

Of course it's been so long since I done that I'd prolly be askeered to deaf to do it today...LOL...nah...gimme da wheels!

If this vehicle gets the MPH and Mileage they claim, for that cheaply, and gas stations start installing air-pumps (or whatever) for them, and this helps free us from foreign oil and saves us that much money.

I'll buy one. Bet on that.

whoa does OPEC and the shrub know about this stuff...and if so how much will the owners of the company hold out for or refuse to sell their product

whoa does OPEC and the shrub know about this stuff...and if so how much will the owners of the company hold out for or refuse to sell their product

Oil companies have a problem. A very large problem.

There is no "new" oil being created. The process by which organic materials become oil, through heat and compression, requires millions and millions of years. We have been extracting oil for around 150 years now, and most estimates say that we have either reached the peak of availability, or will reach it, anywhere from now to 20 or 30 years from now, with most estimates being on the smaller side of that number.

When something reaches the half-way mark, it has "peaked". Then we are on the down side of the slope.

If we haven't already, we will reach the peak within the next 10 or 15 years. Then we are eating away at the pie until it is gone. World oil reserves may last from 30 to 60 years, but not much more.

The other part of this problem, is that consumption is growing, not declining. So while oil fields are disappearing, the need for oil grows every single year.

I think I have read somewhere that on the path we are on, within 30 years, demand will double from the levels we are at now. So demand doubles, and supply dwindles even faster.

Oil companies need to make as much as possible NOW, cause they know that supply is peaking. That is why they are investing billions of dollars in new and renewable energy sources. They are not good citizens (commercials to the contrary) instead, it is a business decision. They have no choice.

Some have claimed that with modern technology being so advanced, almost all of the world, has already been mapped geologically, and that at most, there may be a few undiscovered large fields in Russia, and maybe a few more in Africa. Others claim that there are NO new "large" oil fields left to discover.

I don't think that oil companies have any desire for demand to grow for oil. They are running out. Poor countries, which make up most of the world, will need oil for decades to come. So, I don't believe there is any secret agenda to keep other energy sources away from us. They "need" us to move to other energy sources. They just want to be the ones selling the new stuff to us.

The vehicles you saw in the article, are already being sold in India, and it claims that agreements have been forged to sell them here within the next year or two.

Let's hope so, cause Bush's IDIOTIC plan to power our vehicles by corn, is... well.... IDIOTIC!!!!

Produce prices have already increased substantially because of this, since farmers are using much of their fields for corn now, and that limits other produce, driving the price up. Additionally, to depend on ANY kind of farm grown substance for energy purposes, is just CRAZY!!!

When I first heard about this big push and deals Bush was making with other countries about corn to power cars, the first thing I thought was "What if there was a blight, like the potato famine in Ireland, that takes years to figure out how to stop? We would be at a stand still, because we couldn't safely grow, in large enough numbers, the corn needed.

I don't get the thinking on this. It's risky and ridiculous to me.

Some studies have even concluded that ethanol from corn, actually requires 30% more energy to create than it produces. A net loss, if true.

The world is run by IDIOTS!!!!!

The world is run by CAPITALISTS. (like in India, China , U.S.ums' and Putinvannia)

Don't shoot Me! (I'm only the Pianney Player)

Lot of truth spoken there, though Southern Man!

Howlin'

The world is run by CAPITALISTS. (like in India, China , U.S.ums' and Putinvannia)

Don't shoot Me! (I'm only the Pianney Player)

Lot of truth spoken there, though Southern Man!

Howlin'

You've had me crackin' up this whole thread brother man!

LOL

I grew up with crude oil drippin on my head. pulled more tube run more pipe than lots people have ever seen before I was 20.
Oil and Natural gas are here to stay get used to it. all these people talken bout we'r running out have no idea. We need greater and cleaner utilization. There are still reserves untouched larger that all weve ever used. "hello" some one out there dont want you to know about it. enviro freeks dont want you to drill it, dividends from evil "big oil" pays into the pension funds of most Americans via investment returns. If you dont know how it works, dont f**k.

Well, as soon as these technologies become available & affordable in my country, I'll jump on 'em with both feets!

I can pretty much guarantee you, though, that the powers that be will slam all of these new cars as being unsafe. Gotta keep the $'s in thier hands anyway they can.

Look at the BMW hydro car...only thing it exhausts is water. Think you'll see that in this country anytime soon?

Heck, they wouldn't even use those non-explodable gas tanks in cars...I wonder why? They don't cost much at all.

Recently they had huge riots in Jamaica over the cost of gas due to tax increases...when will we get smart enough or fed up enough to start that up here in the US? Where's that old pioneer spirit? Make the powers that be work for us for a change!

I'm feelin' more defiant by the day over this issue, folks...step back I think I may go postal!