How would you feel about someone trying to sell you a car that runs on fresh air…? A bit skeptical maybe? Well let me introduce you to the Airpod, manufactured by MDI, the Airpod is powered by MDI´s compressed air system, which uses electricity to compress huge amounts of air in small tanks. The air is then slowly released from the tanks, driving pistons that move the car. This system is due to be released into American cars by 2010, and was licensed by Tata Motors for use in India and Europe.
The AirPod seats three (one facing backward) and the “playful and futuristic” design allows for an extremely light-weight and inexpensive vehicle. The top speed of the thing is just over 40 miles per hour (65km/hr) and it has a range of only 130 miles (209km/hr) before a refill is needed, so…obviously it will be just for city use.
Refilling an air car can be extremely quick (if you happen to have an aircar fueling station nearby) or quite slow (if you have to charge using an inexpensive home compressor.) But these cars are never dirty. Even if the power used to compress the air is pure-coal-fired power, these things are way cleaner than gasoline, and even cleaner than electric vehicles.
Why? Firstly, their tiny city-specific design means that they´re just going to be more efficient. And secondly, the fact that the cars require no complicated, metal-filled batteries means that the environmental impact of construction is significantly lower.
Unfortunately, the trade-off is slow speeds and short ranges, which hopefully won´t be too much of a detractor…at least in Europe, which is sure to be the AirPod´s initial market.
The liveeco team
