MDI Inc. and Zero Pollution Motors Compressed Air Vehicle

By Eric Boyd on March 27, 2008 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tags:

CAV,

compressed air,

MDI,

New York Auto Show,

Zero Pollution Motors

At the New York Auto Show, I interviewed Guy Negre and Shiva Vencat. Episode 3 of the X Prize Cars Podcast (MP3) is out and features this dynamic duo talking about their vehicle at the New York Auto Show. Guy Negre runs MDI, and Shiva Vencat is behind Zero Pollution Motors. They intend to enter a compressed air vehicle in both the mainstream and the alternative class - two different vehicles. My old page MDI & ZPM CityCAT features the 6-seat mainstream class, while this page is about the new 3-seat alternative class Compressed Air Vehicle (PDF). Read on for the same information presented via HTML.

Short Description: 3-seat compressed air vehicle
Availability & Cost: $6k, 2009

Background and Details

Left Image: 3-seat alternative class compressed air vehicle
Right Image: CityCAT mainstream 6-seat (see Page 6)
Guy Negre, famous for Formula One race cars, is the founder of MDI - Motor Development International
Shiva Vencat operates Zero Pollution Motors, the US franchise holder for MDI technology. ZPM is AXP team.
They claim 106 MPGe, table shows calculated MPGe from the range/energy stats given on the website
The compressed air is stored at 4,500 PSI in reinforced carbon fiber tanks held below the chassis.
Has been widely called the “Air Car”, but they prefer to avoid that name because it has been used for many other unrelated vehicles (even flying ones) - confusing at best. New name is “Compressed Air Vehicle” (CAV)
References: Zero Pollution Motors MDI CityCAT Newsweek YouTube Wikipedia GCC AutoblogGreen

Vehicle Stats

MPGe	94 MPGe comp. air 99 MPG gasoline
Weight	1874 lbs
L x W x H (ft)	13.0 x 6.0 x 5.7
HP	75
0-60 MPH	? seconds
Top Speed	96 MPH
Storage	3200 ft^3 @ 4500 PSI
Charge Time	3 minutes at high pressure air station 4h with onboard compressor: 5.5kW generates 812 ft^3/h
Range	60 miles on comp. air 848 miles on 8 gal. gas
Engine	6C, “40P01/6”, can use both compressed air and gasoline. The comp. air powers two different power strokes (isothermic, polytropic)
Cd x Frontal Area	? x ? ft^2