Air Car's first manufacturing plant will be located in Melbourne, cars sold in Australia next year
Guy Negre and Louis Arnoux of MDI-Energy, the company behind the air car, are in Melbourne, Australia, demonstrating the air car technology to government and potential investors as part of a five year, $1.5 B plan to make and sell the cars in Australia, according to the Age. The first plant will be established in Australia and the cars are expected to be sold in Australia next year says the Age. That turnaround seems fast to me but I would guess those projections may include existing plants from Tata which MDI-Energy has an agreement to produce cars by August 2008.
What's the air car? The air car is a very promising green automotive technology that uses compressed air to propel a car. The Age says the cars can go 68 MPH and has a range of 93 miles or, if the compressed air is heated, potential ranges of thousands of miles (the distance from Perth to Brisbane) are possible. The car would sell for $8,000, the Age says, operating costs would be 80 percent less, the plant would mean 7,000 new jobs for Melbourne, and MDI-Energy aims to reduce car emission 20 percent over the next 10 years.
You can see why so many people are really looking forward to air cars hitting the streets.
Related:
[Source: The Age]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
w00t 1:00AM (2/24/2008)
Oh yeah, I'll take one of these and leave my gas car to finish rusting out.
I think people are just too brainwashed or conditioned to think of this as a real car. I'm a bit sick (literally) of breathing in all the exhaust in the city.
I hope this http://www.catvolution.com thing takes off, but it looks about a year away from hitting the streets.
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Darkangel 1:35AM (2/29/2008)
Its a great news that such an alternative transport is becomming a reality and that these someday will compete with the traditional vehicles we now use.
I would love to see them in real world test.
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Lowchenghai 6:04AM (7/02/2008)
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Lowchenghai 6:09AM (7/02/2008)
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ecolo Trader 8:16AM (9/17/2008)
And in France, in the city of Toulouse for the next week normaly !
http://www.ecolo-trader.fr/La-voiture-a-air-comprime-FLOWAIR-a-Toulouse-vtptc-135.php
"We must to be green"
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Charlie 10:30PM (12/27/2008)
Where are these cars ????
This is Dec 2007 article that says the cars are expected to be sold in Australia in 2008.
MDI says that the cars are still a year or two away from production. That is not too surprising, since that is what MDI has said virtually every year since 2000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/africa/988265.stm
http://www.gizmag.com/go/3523/
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CEFDE123AF937A15752C1A9669C8B63
Does the car really exist or is this an elaborate multi-year investment scam.
The only published test results show the MDI car as only being able to go 7.22km. Yet everyone keeps accepting claims of 200km operating range without asking if any prototype has ever managed to actually do it.
Look at http://web.archive.org/web/20071011200005/http://www.theaircar.com/tests.html to see how blind optimism can convert actual observed performance of 7.22km range before running out of air into a "specified" range of 200km.
There are lots of videos on You Tube, but they are the same handful of prototypes going around in circles in the MDI parking lot.
The fact that no auto magazine has ever gotten to road test the cars looks very suspicious in the context of the multiple broken promises and failure to deliver by MDI over the years.
I would love for these cars to actually do what MDI claims. I would also love for perpetual motion machines to solve all of our energy problems.
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Marvin 2:44PM (7/19/2009)
They could use noise cancellation technology to make the car sound better, I think this is a great idea. I could use a wind turbine to compress air and drive for free.
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L1G 2:45PM (12/03/2007)
$8,000 AUD or USD ?
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Lascelles Linton 2:38PM (12/03/2007)
L1G, I am not sure but I think the currencies are just a dime apart.
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Kardax 4:08PM (12/03/2007)
Thousands of miles of range? Maybe if they heated it to 20,000 degrees.
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ug 6:09PM (12/03/2007)
These things sound like jackhammers. I would never buy one.
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Dave 7:21PM (12/03/2007)
Sounds more like an air impact wrench.
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bart 11:18AM (12/04/2007)
What negative comments. Doesn't 8c per gallon equivalent evaporate a lot of your worries?
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Kevin 5:45PM (12/05/2007)
This would be easier to believe if not for the ridiculously exaggerated claims.
>>when the air is heated externally and incorporated with a fuel source, such as ethanol or diesel, it is possible to travel from Perth to Brisbane without refuelling.
Utter crap.
>> The car can be refuelled by plugging it into the compressed air supply that is found at most service stations.
A service station's compressed air supply runs at ~100 psi. That's a far cry from what air car needs: ~4500 psi.
I'm guessing the car's range is exagerated too. I'd be impressed if it could provide more than about 80 km in real
world driving. It should be noted that battery electric cars manufacturers also exaggerate their range estimates.
Kev
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Dad 4:00PM (1/05/2008)
Sounds like a bunch of hot air. I will believe it when I see one running around with the AC or heater running.
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