Electric Cars Move Over

How would you feel about a car that gets over 100 miles per gallon, seats six, has a 35 cubic foot trunk and a top speed of 96mph. Not good enough for all you greens out there? How about the fact that it emits less then 1/4 the total emissions of the Toyota Prius. Of course if it is going under 35 miles per hour there are no emissions but cold pure clean filtered air.

What powers this car? Air. You heard it, compressed air. An onboard compressor allows the tanks to be recharged in 2-4 hours but once air stations are on line the tanks should be able to be charged up in 3 minutes. This Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed. 8 gallons of fuel will get you 800 plus miles.

What's the catch? As always it must be too expensive. Not in this case, ZPM expects to sell the cars for $17,800 starting in early 2010.

So to sum it up:

ZPM said it plans to produce a six-seat, four-door family-sized version of its compressed air vehicle to the U.S. market. this model will achieve over 100 mpg, over 90 mph capability, have zero to low CO2 emissions, offer plenty of space for luggage, meet all safety requirements, and cost no more than an average midsize car. The first compressed air car is expected to roll off the production line for US purchase in 2010 and cost around US$18,000.