An old Beyond Tomorrow vid but you get the idea… Its about the compressed air car engine and the 2 inventors that came up with it. MDI is a company headed by Guy Negre, a Frenchman who came up with an idea to make a car run on compressed air back in ‘97. Engineair is a Melbourne based company run by Angelo Di Pietro that also has a similar idea, only his engine can be held up by a baby.

Both engines run on compressed air, promising decent performance when commercially available. The other pluses include zero emissions and cheap, easy refueling. At first glance, I have to say I was skeptical and still am somewhat but I hope its legit.

Ok, so of course compressed air doesn’t come without the use of electricity or burning of fossil fuels but the thing is, not all of it needs to come from that. It could come from solar/wind/hydro/nuclear stations as well. Pollution would get concentrated where the power stations would be and roads would probably get a whole load cleaner.

Another thing is safety. With compressed air tanks under the car, the engineers’ solution is to use carbon fibre tanks, which splinter under duress but do not create shrapnel. I still wonder if there’s gonna be a big bang if that happens anyway and you get forced through your windscreen by compressed air.

Then there’s performance. Will it ever be possible to have a compressed air car run like an Bugatti? Perhaps only time will tell. Tata Motors of India is apparently already in contract with MDI to try to actually produce the Air Car soon-ish.