New car maker

Subject: New car maker Sat Apr 04, 2009 12:35 am

A new carmaker has a plan for cheap, environmentally friendly cars to be built all over the countryAn
air-powered car? It may be available sooner than you think at a price
tag that will hardly be a budget buster. The vehicle may not run like a
speed racer on back road highways, but developer Zero Pollution Motors
is betting consumers will be willing to fork over $20,000 for a vehicle
that can motor around all day on nothing but air and a splash of salad
oil, alcohol or possibly a pint of gasoline.

The
expertise needed to build a compressed air car, or CAV, is not rocket
science, either. Years-old, off-the-shelf technology uses compressed
air to drive old-fashioned car engine pistons instead of combusting gas
or diesel fuel to create a burst of air to do the same thing. Indian
carmaker Tata has no qualms about the technology. It has already bought
the rights to make the car for the huge Indian market.The air
car can tool along at a top speed of 35 mph for some 60 miles or so on
a tank of compressed air, a sufficient distance for 80% of consumers to
commute to work and back and complete daily chores.

Courtesy of MDI

On
highways, the CAV can cruise at interstate speeds for nearly 800 miles
with a small motor that compresses outside air to keep the tank filled.
The motor isn't finicky about fuel. It will burn gasoline or diesel as
well as biodiesel, ethanol or vegetable oil.This car leaves the
highest-mpg vehicles you can buy right now in the dust. Even if it used
only regular gasoline, the air car would average 106 mpg, more than
double today's fuel sipping champ, the Toyota Prius. The air tank also
can be refilled when it's not in use by being plugged into a wall
socket and recharged with electricity as the motor compresses air.Automakers
aren't quite ready yet to gear up huge assembly line operations
churning out air cars or set up glitzy dealer showrooms where you can
ooh and aah over the color or style. But the vehicles will be built in
factories that will make up to 8,000 vehicles a year, likely starting
in 2011, and be sold directly to consumers.There will be plants
in nearly every state, based on the number of drivers in the state.
California will have as many as 17 air car manufacturing plants, and
there'll be around 12 in Florida, eight in New York, four in Georgia,
while two in Connecticut will serve that state and Rhode Island.The
technology goes back decades, but is coming together courtesy of two
converging forces. First, new laws are likely to be enacted in a few
years that will limit carbon dioxide emissions and force automakers to
develop ultra-high mileage cars and those that emit minuscule amounts
of or no gases linked with global warming. Plug-in electric hybrids
will slash these emissions, but they'll be pricey at around $40,000
each and require some changes in infrastructure -- such as widespread
recharge stations -- to be practical. Fuel cells that burn hydrogen to
produce only water vapor still face daunting technical challenges.Second,
the relatively high cost of gas has expedited the air car's
development. Yes, pump prices have plunged since July from record
levels, but remain way higher than just a few years ago and continue to
take a bite out of disposable income. Refiners will face carbon
emission restraints, too, and steeply higher costs will be passed along
at the pump.Zero Pollution Motors doesn't plan to produce the cars in the U.S.
Instead, it plans to charge $15 million for the rights to the
technology, a fully built turnkey auto assembly plant, tools, machinery, training and rights to use trademarks.The
CAV has a big hurdle: proving it can pass federal crash tests. Shiva
Vencat, president and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors, says he's not
worried. "The requirements can be modeled [on a computer] before
anything is built and adjusted to ensure that the cars will pass" the
crash tests. Vencat also is a vice president of MDI Inc., a French
company that developed the air car.The inventor of this
technology is Mr. Guy Negre, who is the founder and CEO of MDI SA, a
company headquartered in Luxembourg with its R and D in Nice, France.

Subject: Re: New car maker Sat Apr 04, 2009 6:53 am

Thats awesome but why do you think the cars have to look so darn ugly?