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David Evans of Evington is willing — actually anxious — to give up his Toyota Prius hybrid that gets great gas mileage.
But only once he can get a car that runs on air.
And he’s doing everything he can to make sure the car catches on in the U.S. market, contacting everyone from his congressman to car manufacturers to encourage its use.
After Evans’ efforts, one congressman has asked the manufacturer of the “air car” to locate in Southside Virginia.
Former Formula One racecar engineer Guy Negre founded MDI Enterprises in Europe in 1991 to develop an engine to run on compressed air.
The U.S. arm of MDI, Zero Pollution Motors, plans to introduce a six-seater powered by compressed air to the U.S. market in 2010.
According to Zero Pollution Motors, drivers could fill up the tanks at air machines used to fill tires for about $2 and drive more than 800 miles, reaching top speeds over 90 miles per hour.
Evans learned about the technology a year ago through a Discovery Channel show. It immediately piqued his interest.
“I thought it was an excellent thing to have here in the U.S.,” Evans said. He saw it as a way to save on fuel costs and decrease the nation’s dependence on oil.
Evans started writing to leaders in Washington and Richmond as well as vehicle manufacturers and the U.S. Postal Service to encourage efforts to bring the invention to the U.S.
In the letters he included a link to a YouTube video of the Discovery Channel “Beyond Tomorrow” episode featuring the air car.
“Nobody seemed interested at that time,” he said.
But that has changed.
U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) sent Evans a letter in late May asking for information.
Goode said in an interview last week that he had heard of the air car before, but the letter from Evans informed him that Zero Pollution Motors planned to expand operations to the U.S.
Goode said he’d like to see the company set up shop in Southside Virginia. “Any new business and industry that could come into the area, I think would be positive,” Goode said. “It would certainly create more jobs.”
Goode said he has written letters to two people in the air car companies asking them to consider the region.
Others have responded as well. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership recently assigned one official to encourage the company to locate in Virginia.
Wherever they’re made, Evans just hopes that enough air cars get produced so they can penetrate the market and one can find its way to his street.
He’s also asked Honda, Ford, General Motors and Toyota to put the technology on their drawing boards.
Zero Pollution Motors plans on a limited production for the U.S., but “I feel like they need to be nationwide,” Evans said.
Not having driven the air-powered car, Evans said he doesn’t know first-hand how good it is. Also, he’s heard some concerns about the car’s ability to maintain highway speeds.
But he said his desire to have them on American roads is more about having the country spend less money on oil.
“When they go on sale in the Lynchburg area, I want to be one of the first ones to knock on the door,” he said.
David Evans
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<a href=“http://citycataircar.com”>Citycat Air Car</a> has more information about the vehicles, or you can contact mdi.lu or zeropollutionmotors.us.
Great stuff guy and keep up the good fight! 8-)
“According to Zero Pollution Motors, drivers could fill up the tanks at air machines used to fill tires for about $2 and drive more than 800 miles, reaching top speeds over 90 miles per hour.“
This is pure baloney.
First of all, regular tire compressors (+/- 100 psi, max) could never produce the high pressures necessary to store enough air to last any length of time.
Secondly, the 800 mile claim must be a typo - 80 miles would be pushing it.
Thirdly, the money doesn’t add up. Small cars have engines that use around a hundred horsepower. Tiny cars have about fifty horsepower, and are notoriously underpowered. Let’s say this car magically uses only thirty horsepower on average and manages to three hours on a charge of compressed air. Such a car would have about the same power as a large lawn tractor.
One horsepower = 747 watts, so 30 horsepower is a little more than 22 kilowatts. In three hours, the car would burn a little more than 66 (22 kilowatts times 3 hours) kilowatt hours of energy. A kilowatt hour of electricity costs about 8.5 cents, on average. Already, we’re over five and half bucks, and this gives us a short-range, low-power ride assuming that our air compressor is 100% efficient. But it isn’t.
The first law of thermodynamics states that you can’t get free energy. It will take MORE electrical power to compress the air than the car uses. Fifty percent compression efficiency would be a miracle. But let’s say we could get it and are able to get 66 kilowatt hours of compressed air by using 122 kilowatt hours of electricity. So now we’re up to more than ten bucks, assuming it doesn’t cost anything more than the electricity to fill up. But there are more costs.
These compressors would need to hooked up at commercial facilities paying commmercical electric rates, rent, equipment costs, maintenance costs, insurance, etc. The owners would need to mark up the price in order to make a profit. Now we’re closer to 20 bucks, assuming all kinds of crazy low prices.
For 20 dollars, you could put five gallons of gas into a Prius and roll more than twice the distance with four times the power.
And don’t foget that electric power isn’t clean. People have the misperception, since they don’t see the soot and smoke in their kitchens when they plug in their toasters, that electricity is “green”. The coal that fires electric generators produces CO2 by the tons and also releases a whole lot of other pollutants (like heavy metal vapors, particulates and radiocactive gases). Nuclear generators, of course, produce all kinds of nasty waste that poses serious environmental and security concerns that have not been addressed. The supposedly “green” electric sources (wind, hydroelectric, solar) make up a tiny fraction of the market.
What a great effort! I too was driven to have this car brought here and spoke to Congressman Goodlatte at the phone town meeting last week. He is also going to be investigating this and the more people speak out about it, the better off we’ll all be. A car, whose only bi-product is fresh air, is only the best choice. We should all be this motivated. Thank Dave for your efforts, and thanks to News and Advance for putting it out there!
That’s a great story about a man not just talking about doing something about the high price of gas and helping the environment, but actually going to work to help make positive changes for both. While we need more oil now and for many years to come, the sooner that Americans can start making use of these new technologies, the sooner that we can start to make some positive changes on the demand side.
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