Pnumovation
by Anthonie
(Virginia Beach, Virginia)
Could we all be this efficient?
I would probably like to own such a car if it was economic enough. I would imagine it would serve its purpose just fine for point A to B. It would not be a speed demon by any means.
If it was slated to come to America or Europe I can see the larger car companies lobbying against it. It would simply be too big of a thorn in its size with not using gas and not from them.
They mentioned in the article the impact on where the electricity came from. If people are not buying gas for it, the money they would be saving on gas would go to feed the electric bill, either costing more then they would save which would be bad, or saving some with the added benefit of not adding a larger carbon footprint.
Barry's Response - Yes Anthonie, this car does not solve all problems, does it? It does give us a step in the "thinking outside the box" direction, though.
I think the oil companies would have an even bigger problem with the introduction of this car than the vehicle manufacturers overall. They may cite any number of potential problems with this idea:
Any process
changing energy from one form to another has intrinsic friction. The greater the number of these changes (e.g., fuel > electricity > compressed air > mechanical = 4 changes) the more energy is lost to that friction.
Rapid decompression leads to ice developing on components. Rapid compression leads to increased cartridge temperature. Once it cools naturally, pressure is lost.
The range of these cars is only a few miles at this point. Some claims are much greater but we're waiting for solid proof.
One other thing: "Pnumovation" is great. Where did you come up with that one?
Search this site for more information now.