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Old 12-31-2008, 08:01 PM   #6 (permalink)
Charlie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Serafina_tikklya View Post
Does anyone know anything about the Zero Pollution Motors compressed air cars?

A friend of mine who is a hydraulic engineer says that their mileage claims must be highly exaggerated, and that a compressed air car would be a traveling bomb if it got into an accident and the air tank exploded.
Zero Pollution Motors is the US fanchisee of MDI The president of Zero Pollution Motors is on the board of directors of MDI.

Your friend appears to be correct about the mileage claims being highly exaggerated. The only test results that MDI published showed their car running out of air after 7.22km (less than 5 miles). MDI refilling stations.
At the bottom of that rather old webpage (no longer on the MDI website) they go through a series of potential future improvements to convert the actual tested range of 7.22km to a 150 or 200km range.

It doesn't appear that they have ever actually managed to achieve this range, but they keep using those figures in announcments of production. Almost every year from 2000 onward, MDI has announced "cars go on sale next year or the year after", but none have ever gotten to market.

Google "e.Volution car" and "eolo car" and "Mexico City taxi MDI" to see the long history of non-performance by MDI and Zero Pollution Motors.

Your friend may be right about the compressed air car operating range being exaggerated, but he exaggerates the hazard of exploding tanks. CNG (compressed natural gas) cars have high pressure tanks similar to that of the air cars, but filled with flammable natural gas. So far, their safety has been acceptable (as has driving around on top of 15 gallons of highly explosive gasoline in a normal car).

Charlie
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