Re: Compressed air car
- From: %steve%@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Firth)
- Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:43:39 +0100
Brian Robertson <brianrobertson@[nospam].com> wrote:
Did anyone mention the car that was in the news the other day that runs
a respectable distance for a respectable length of time at a respectable
speed on compressed air? If so, I didn't see the thread.
Fill it up for £1 from a simple compressor.
I can see you haven't put much, or indeed any, thought into this. £1
won't even buy you 10kWH of electricity. Presumably you are thinking
that this compressor will be electrically driven? Hence the most energy
you have in the vehicle for your £1 is likely to be 8.5 kWH at current
prices. One litre of petrol has approximately 8.5 kWH. Hence you're
filling the car with the equivalent of one litre of petrol, and you will
get about the same distance on that as you would in any petrol car of
the same mass.
On the positive side, an air motor provides extremely high torque for
small size and light weight hence the vehicle will dispense with a very
heavy engine. On the downside, it will replace that engine with very
heavy air bottles.
I would guess that your £1 would take you anywhere between 30 and 60
miles at best. Hence achieving about the same distance that you would
from a petrol powered vehicle.
However most of that is irrelevant, because the company in question MDI
doesn't claim that you can fill the car for £1. THeir estimate is that
it will take 5h30m to fill the car. Nor do they claim that you could run
the car at 68mph, theuy state that the maximum speed would be 60 kmh.
MDI's claims about the distnace that can be travelled are most amusing.
In real world trials a 1.2 tonne vehicle managed to travel just 7.22
kilometers. MDI had claimed a rang eof 200 kilometers.
Their website then attempts to justify the claim against the real world
performance by multiplying the actual distance travelled by a series of
"correction factors" which appear to have been dreamed out of thin air
(very appropriate).
http://www.theaircar.com/tests.html
As you can see, the actual distance travelled of 7.22km multipled by
various imaginary numbers to arrive at the laughable claim.
Sounds good for urban driving and, at 68 m.p.h., still gives the usual
prats the chance to flout the law and to kill children.
Yes it sounds very good. But have you considered a car powered by magic
moonbeams? That will achieve infinite power for an infinite period of
time for no expenditure at all. It emits no CO2, and it will easily
achieve 150mph. It's not available just yet but `I'm looking for
investors.
I also have a gold brick and London Bridge for sale to canny investors.
.
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