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Principal Advantages and Disadvantages of Air Cars

Air car is the brainchild of a Formula One engineer Guy Negre who is the founder of the company Motor Development International (MDI). MDI is introduced with an aim to use innovative technologies and concepts to produce air-powered cars. It is believed that the technology of air cars was first announced in early 1990 but the interest grew gradually.

Today MDI is working in collaboration with Tata Motors to produce air cars for Indian market. The proposed car will use the Compressed Air Engine that supports air compression and expansion to the driver of the car. Apart from India, MDI also desires to introduce air cars to 12 countries including South Africa, Israel, and Germany.

The idea of using compressed air was a big question when the concept was actually introduced but later MDI proved the fact that air can be the best fuel. Today this new technology has also sprung up with the use of compressed air in hybrid cars. Researchers have proved that compressed air can also be used in hybrids with an additional engine running on electricity.

Air cars when produced will purely run on compressed air or on a mixture of air with gasoline or ethanol. Apart from that a lightweight chassis, body composed of composite materials, and high pressure tanks are required to make these cars more effective and powerful. Air cars will definitely reshape the future of car industry but yet it is very important to know the advantages and disadvantages of air cars.

Here are some of the principal advantages and disadvantages of air cars.

bullet  The key advantages of air cars over gasoline and    electric cars are as follows:

  1. The first and foremost advantage of air cars is that it works on a pure compressed air that produces zero pollution.

  2. Air cars are lighter than conventional cars as they are composed of composite materials or aluminium instead of heavy materials like steel. Low weight of the car helps improve efficiency.

  3. The simplistic mechanical design of the car is easy to understand.

  4. The use of compressed engines eliminates the need of a transmission system.

  5. Refueling of the air can be easily done anywhere using an air compressor. The energy that is required for compressing air is mainly produced at large centralized plants that help to effectively manage carbon dioxide emissions.

  6. Introduction of compressed engines in the air cars also reduce the cost of production by nearly 20%. This is mainly because there is no need of engine components like spark plugs, starter motor, or mufflers.

  7. In this era of volatile gas price, air is one of the best fuels that is available completely free of cost.

  8. They take longer to charge but can safely be left unused for a longer period of time as air cars don’t have batteries to dry. This provides a low self discharge rate.

  9. Introduction of air cars also reduce the requirement of air conditioner in the car as expansion of compressed air lowers the temperature. This in turn helps cool the interior of the car.

  10. When mass produced, the cost of production will be much lower than the production of electric cars.

  11. The tanks used in an air compressed engines can easily be discarded or recycled with less contamination.

  12. The tanks in the engine have a longer lifespan.

  13. Air itself is not flammable

  14. There is already infrastructure in place that can be used for producing massive number of air cars.

  15. Air is abundant, economical, transportable, and nonpolluting.


bullet Disadvantages of Air Cars

Though there are many advantages of air cars but still there is a need to be aware of some downsides of the car. Some of the principal disadvantages of air cars are as follows:

  1. The pump that is used for compressing air requires electrical energy that is currently produced using more of fossil fuels and may cause pollution.

  2. Within the vehicle, expansion and consequent pressure reduction in the engine chills reduces its effective pressure. To increase this pressure ambient heat is required and this in turn leads to a more complex propulsion system.

  3. When energy is converted into compressed air some energy is lost in the process. There is an indirect use of energy.

  4. Refueling the compressed air takes a longer time especially when done at home.

  5. Distance that an air car can cover is also crucial when it comes to actual driving. During the early phase of air cars, very few petrol pumps will have the air compressors for refueling air. So, the driver has to make sure that the car runs well between two petrol pumps where air cars can be refueled.

  6. In case of an accident, air cars can be dangerous because of the compressed air tanks that can burst and cause harm.

  7. The overall efficiency of air cars is comparatively lower than electric cars.


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