Magnetic Air Car Could Be Ready by 2010
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The Magnetic Air Car uses three on-board substations to harness compressed air. The resulting airflow is channeled, modulated, and converted to torque that propels the car.
According to company representative Paul Donovan, the car uses a silicon salt battery that has 30% more mass power than a lead acid storage battery and can charge completely within an hour. The 95 percent recyclable battery can also can be used in a temperature range from -40 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees Celsius.
Though the Magnetic Air Car has not yet been tested, Donovan hopes to have it ready for production by 2010. The company plans on building its first prototype at Club Auto Sport in San Jose in the near future.
The vehicle draws comparisons to Tata Motors’ 106 mpg air car, but Donovan says that the Tata Motors design uses pistons while the Magnetic Air Car design uses magnetic technology.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any more details available on the Magnetic Air Car at this time. But if the prototype is successful, I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more about this company.
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No its storing it in BATTERIES. the air is just the mechanical transformation of that battery power into motion IE highly inefficient. If they have the battery power for this “air torque” idea then they already have the battery to just put an electric motor in the thing.
Impossible claims? Vague technology? Self-contradicting description? Never-before-discussed technology?
I sense a scam.
opinionation -
Automotive air tanks are pretty well figured out safety wise (10’s of millions of air-brake vehicles (semis/buses) on the road).
You are correct that there is a ‘fuel’ of some type, there will always be a ‘fuel’ of some type unless the law of energy conservation is somehow violated in the future. This is the biggest problem that people overlook with electric and hydrogen, etc.. (takes electricity to produce through hydrolysis) vehicles. When more than half of the energy in this country is still produced from fossil fuels, we’re better off using gasoline/diesel because there is less energy lost to the end product of moving your car.
Sounds just like the “water” car from Genepax, that we will never see.
http://www.greenterrafirma.com/alternative-energy-vehicles.html
I wouldn’t try to lump this in with “green” technology - electric vehicles DO have a future. Not sure that this company will.
Thanks, Brian. I appreciate your support!
People will soon find out, once these various “Air Cars” are on the road, that….
IF… They had taken all the electrticity it took to
PUMP the car UP, and instead, just charged a pure Electric Vehicle, with Batteries… They could have gone FARTHER on LESS Energy..
The heat losses in compressing Air, to these HIGH pressures, and then running some MECHANICAL device with the air pressure is a LOOSE LOOSE proposition…
Steve Lough
President
Seattle EV Association
I don’t understand why people buy into obvious fakes like these. There are several problems I’m seeing based on the description provided.
Ignoring the fact that this car is obviously not “fuel-less”:
1) “… uses three on-board substations to harness compressed air.”
On-board substations? Substations are building that step-up or step-down the voltage of electricity for powerlines. Substations have nothing to do with “harnessing compressed air”.
2) “The resulting airflow is channeled, modulated, and converted to torque that propels the car.”
a) Ok, so they channel the airflow. That at least makes sense. But how and why exactly are they modulating the air? Don’t bother trying to answer that question. To modulate something, outside of the music and art definitions, is approximately thus: “To change a signal in a way that conveys information”. That which provides the raw power to the device does not need to convey *any* information.
b) “airflow is … converted to torque that propels the car.”
I really don’t like this statement. Technically speaking, it *can* make sense, but it’s a little too dumbed down - a little too vauge. Combined with the rest of this article, it just smells like snake oil.
3) “… a silicon salt battery that has 30% more mass power than a lead acid storage battery and can charge completely within an hour.”
a), I don’t believe that a “silicon salt battery” even exists. Even Google only comes up with 7 results for that phrase, most of them refering to this very “car”.
b) “30% more mass”. More mass=more work required. What you want isn’t more mass; you want more energy storage per mass unit (which is what newer battery technology is helping with).
c) “… and can charge completely within an hour.” The only way this is possible (for a battery of the size required for this type of application) is by using charging methods that severely decrease battery life in the long-run.
4) “but … the Tata Motors design uses pistons while the Magnetic Air Car design uses magnetic technology.”
Uh… yeah. Sure. How? Air has no magnetic properties. How can “magnetic technology” possibly use air to provide mechanical energy?
Don’t get me wrong. I want to see alternative engine technologies as much as the next guy. If they can show the science behind this without any vauge or marketing terms or “it just works” type statements, I’ll at least be intrigued. Until then, it’s just vaporware.
BTW. To those that are saying that car looks cool, it is highly unlikely the picture used in the article is the actual car. The picture is a marketing shot that comes from the car’s website, and just above it is two mid-sized ecconomy cars, a semi truck and an SUV. It’s probably just concept art. Even if it did have that body, a piece of shit in a cool body is still a piece of shit.
That concept car pictured is actually the GTM Supercar from Factory Five Racing. It’s a kit car. The ‘Magnetic Air Cars, Inc’ official website looks very poor and the title is even spelled wrong.
“Necessity is the mother of invention(s)”…let us hope that the birth of a new american industry is on its way…Alternative Fuels development. Potentially, this could rival/surpass the technology Boom of the past 20 years.
From my understanding, a magnetic motor works by capturing the power of magnets repelling each other. This would not require a liquid cooling system.
A battery would be required to maintain a steady electrical field, power the lights, radio, cigar lighter/power outlet, and heater.
I expect this will use composite/fiber tanks to hold air at high pressure. If they are damaged in a wreck, they crack, with a bang, rather than explode.