Air cars could be a realistic green solution

Even with the merciful drop in gas prices in recent months, consumers and manufacturers are looking for ways to save gas and decrease pollution with new vehicle designs.

Last month it was announced that students from RV College of Engineering in Bangalore, India designed and developed a car that could go about 112 miles on just a liter of fuel.

The mechanical engineering students created an aero-dynamic and light weight vehicle with an air-cooled engine. The 120-pound car is only ten feet long and two and a half feet wide and tall, so there’s only room for the driver, who has to be in a reclining position.

While the technology of that car is an achievement, the design may not have it on its way to mass production. Another design that will soon be introduced to the sizeable Indian market is the air car.

Developed by Luxembourg-based MDI (Motor Development International), and licensed in the US to ZPM (Zero Pollution Motors), the compressed air vehicles, or CAVs, can run almost entirely on air. Compressed air is used to power old-fashioned engine pistons rather than creating air by combusting gas to do it. Indian carmaker Tata has bought the rights to produce the car.

The CAV is capable of traveling for 60 miles at 35 mph on a tank of compressed air, and it can travel nearly 800 miles at interstate speeds with a motor that compresses outside air to fill the tank. The motor can also refill the tank if it’s plugged into a wall socket and recharged with electricity.

The motor will also burn gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, ethanol, or vegetable oil. Even relying on gasoline the car would get 106 mpg, more than double what today’s most fuel-efficient cars can do.

Mass production in the US is expected to begin in most states in 2011. Rather than produce the car in the US itself, Tata plans to sell the technological rights, a turnkey auto assembly plant, tools, machinery, training, and trademarks for $15 million.

However, Popular Mechanics reported earlier this year that ZPM plans to produce the first CAVs for the US in late 2009, early 2010. The company is licensed to build MDI’s two-seat economy model, the One FlowAIR, and its three-seat Mini FlowAIR, but has plans to first release a modified version of the City Flow AIR, a six-seater that can travel an estimated 1000 miles per fill-up at 96 mph, for just $17,800.

These cars employ a new dual-energy engine developed by MDI that has a custom heating chamber to heat the air and provide another energy source to increase the car’s range and speed.

All of the CAV models still need to pass crash test standards before being put into production, but with emissions standards and gas prices likely to force the hand of automakers in the near future, this technology could be closer than ever to becoming a consumer reality.