Air Car could Come to America

On the first take the notion of a car that runs on the same air we breathe sounds like something just short of a miracle. Even the MDI inventor and former Formula One engineer Guy Negre admits that only the likes of Jules Verne mused of such a vehicle.

It is no wonder then that Verne and Negre share the same birthday. For the principle behind air-driven propulsion is fairly basic. A tank with compressed air, most likely pressurized to about 4500 psi, sets the wheels in motion by delivering force directly to the pistons with little or no internal combustion. The result is a zero-emissions vehicle that can travel about 120 miles at a top speed of 70 mph.

Tata, India's largest automaker, and a number of unnamed Japanese investors have already licensed the technology. There are also unconfirmed reports that the upcoming model of MDI might even make its way stateside in the next 2 years and go for around $17,800.

At the top link you'll find the text quoted, and a video "sales pitch." (The YouTube video didn't start automatically for me, so dialuppers can click safely.) Nothing particularly revolutionary about using compressed air to run an airmotor. The pitch makes pretty good sense until about the last fifteen seconds of the video.

John