Air Car

Compressed Air Car Wins $5 Million Deal on Shark Tank - Via Chuck Egg

Normally I like to talk about good ideas, but this one has been kicking around for several years now and I don't understand why it hasn't been kicked to the curb. It doesn't sound like a good idea to me, matter of fact it looks an awful lot like a scam. They are putting a lot of effort into making it look real, but maybe it's just a really BIG scam.

I remember hearing about some guy in India trying to start a compressed-air-powered car company a few years ago. It didn't seem like a good idea then. Compressing air takes a lot of energy and a lot of that energy is converted into heat, which is lost (dissipated). This guy is going to heat the air as it is used to get more pressure? What is he heating if with? His aura? Air motors are notoriously inefficient. The only place I know where they are used is in power tools for auto mechanics (impact wrenches, ratchets, grinders), and the only reason they use them is they can get a great deal of power in a small package. The downside is you need a giant frigging compressor to supply the compressed air, and we're only talking 100 PSI or so, not 4,000 psi. Lastly, who have they got on stage? Pat Boone? Are you friggin' kidding me?

The two companies involved in this scheme are Tata Motors, in India and Luxembourg-based Motor Development International (MDI). Tata Motors is a real company, but MDI? The Wikipedia article is not reassuring. Wikipedia also has an article on the whole Compressed Air Car concept, and it doesn't make this project look any better.