Larry's Environmental Issues Blog

New Car Runs on Compressed Air

French engineer Guy Negre has designed a car that runs on compressed air, produces no emissions on short trips, and can be refueled in three minutes flat.

Called the OneCAT (CAT stands for compressed air technology), the new compressed-air powered car is a lightweight five-seat vehicle that is expected to sell for about $5,000 when it hits the market. With the backing of Tata Motors, which just last month introduced the world’s cheapest car—the $2,500 Tata Nano subcompact—Negre plans to start selling the first models in India within a year.

If this sounds like the automotive equivalent of balloon power, you’re not far off. The compressed air is stored in carbon-fiber tanks that are built into the chassis. As the air is released, the pressure drives pistons that power the engine and move the car, and the pistons compress the air into a reservoir so that the process continues.

On short trips, the car runs on nothing but air. For longer trips, liquid fuel increases the vehicle’s range by heating and expanding the compressed air, which increases the pressure on the pistons. The OneCAT is designed to burn any liquid fuel and gets the equivalent of 120 miles per gallon when fuel is needed.

Negre’s vision of sustainable transportation extends beyond the vehicle itself. Although he partnered with Tata Motors in India, for the rest of the world his goal is to save emissions by persuading hundreds of investors to set up local factories to use 80 percent locally sourced materials. And to help keep the OneCAT affordable, he wants the factories to cut out the middle man and sell their cars directly to consumers.
_{Photo by Moteur Developpment International}