The “Break it Down” Blog

We covered the MDI-designed “Air Car” back in May, with a very cool video describing the design of the air engine and technology behind the futuristic “to be” car as well as the existing in-use applications of the hyper-powerful compressed-air-based engines.

Jens Eckels has sent along news that it looks like US company Zero Pollution Motors is the first to purchase an MDI “Air Car” license in order to mass-produce the car here in the US by 2010.

The estimated price point for the vehicle will be in the ballpark of $18,000 and get drivers around 108 mpg (more than twice what the Toyota Prius gets).

And interesting note about the car is that it will continue to use gasoline to power an motor used to heat up air, causing it to expand and provide more power when the car goes over 35 mph. For short/slow runs the car will run exclusively on the compressed air in it’s tanks but during higher speed travel the air will need to be energized by heating it to get the car up to an estimated max of 90 mph.

Another interesting note from the video that we originally posted was that idea that the internal motor could also be used to repressurize (refill) the compressed air tanks on the fly, very similar to how hybrid combustion motors are used to recharge batteries as they drain and not necessarily power the drive-train.

While none of these hybrid approaches completely solve the problem we are currently seeing with our dependence on oil, they are bringing to the table very interesting ideas on how to shift away from that single source or at the least move the choke-point of dependency off of each individual car (e.g. need to fill it with gas) and onto more centrally controlled locations that can be upgraded or modified over time with more success (e.g. power plants).

Thanks CNN!