A car running on compressed air

[KThunder]

lead acid batteries are about 75% efficient and very heavy
nicads are lighter but still can fold much

if compressed air can store as much energy and be lighter this could be a good tech possibility

a couple years ago i hooked an air hose from my garage air compressor to a weed wacker engine (small 2 stroke) and gave it a spin and it took off and that was at 140 psi (10bar?)

i wonder how my motorcycle would run with a scuba tank supplying air

[KThunder]

you can also recharge it alot quicker.
as air heats as it is compressed the temps would be the limiting factor although carbon fiber tanks would be ok as long as the plastic liner can take it.

when i was a kid we had these toy cars that had a tank on them that you could use a little hand pump to fill, those things would move heck and gone faster than any battery powered rc as fast as a gas powered one but of course with just a hand pump they would run out of air pretty quickly

[KThunder]

i just did some searching to find battery pack weights for different vehicles.

most hybrids have a pack weight anywhere from 20-30kg up to around 100kg

fully electric cars have packs weighing anywhere from 100 to 500kg

fully electric cars with a range of 200km would have a pack closer to the 500kg range and be very slow to accelerate.

[KThunder]

Karlos wrote:


You obviously haven't seen the Tesla Roadster ;-)

That thing delivers more torque at 8000 rpm than most petrol engines do immediately after starting...

0-60 in about 4-5 seconds acceleration enough for you?

i obviously have seen the tesla
it also has a lithium battery (very expensive)
its also a two seater right?

my comment wasnt that electric motors arent powerfull but that usually to give them decent range the pack has to be so big they cant accelerate very quickly. simple fact of physics electric cars wont acclerate or handle well when the battery weighs almost as much as the rest of the car

btw they dont state it on the site but the 200 mile range is probably at 40 to 45 mph

[KThunder]

i want an electric car too, it would need a range of about 50 at ~60mph
a two seater would be fine but it couldnt cost too much.

pulling alot of power quickly (to produce high torque) can kill batteries too. do it too often and the high recharge number cound they list will fall alot.

[KThunder]

motorollin wrote:
A common argument against electric/hydro cars is that the battery has to be manufactured and charged, or the hydrogen produced, which itself uses electricity. However, the factory which manufactures the battery or produces the hydrogen can be powered by nuclear energy which is (apparrently) cleaner than fuel-burning power stations - assuming that the waste product is disposed of safely. Also, mains power to private properties can be produced using the same means, which means batteries can be charged more cleanly. Compare this with fuel-burning cars, which are impossible to fuel cleanly since they use a combustion engine.

--
moto

a good chunk of the electricity in ny state now comes from hydroelectric and wind power i think that is the way forward for that.
cars and their engines are also rarely well maintained and operated. that effects gas millage and emissions.