La voiture qui pompe l'air - Translation (EN)
Date: 28 Feb 2009
Main Page Text: initial translation via Google, edited by gnomædh
The Air-Powered Car
Published February 27 2009
Report: Zian Marro
Editor: Ulrich Teiger
The little three-wheeled car puts along in front of visitors that just stare on amusingly. In the industrial area of Carros, near Nice, tests and demonstrations are going well. "We operate the car with a joystick just like an Airbus! " says a smiling Guy Nègre, the inventor of the compressed air car. The man has a good overview of the whole aircar concept and its selling points: a max speed of 70km/h, and 1€ worth of compressed air for a range of 220km in the city.
Efficiencies Between 36% and 48%
These figures come from computer simulations and some experts doubt these results. "It seems really difficult to achieve sufficient efficiency with these types vehicles" doubts Favrat Daniel, the director of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering at the EPFL. "300L of air compressed to 300 bar [for larger vehicles - editor's note], this represents a maximum of 1.2L of petrol. This is extremely low." Guy Nègre insists on the performance of his vehicles. "In pure air, the overall energy efficiency [...] is between 36% and 48%," says the French manufacturer. "In comparison, in the city the efficiency of a gasoline car is about 9%. For a diesel it's about 13%." But, according to Daniel Favrat, the electric car has a much likelier future. Its efficiency is above the 50% mark. The only problem is that electric vehicles are too heavy. The compressed air car from the French company would barely have a total mass of 500kg! But Guy Nègre is not disputing the specs on the technology. He actually wants to revolutionize the production and distribution of vehicles all around. No more huge factories and transport costs to individual dealerships. "The car will be manufactured in the back room of the dealership itself," explains an engineer in Carros. The customer would therefore buy cars directly from the factory.
Swissmetal - Car Manufacturing?
The idea has captured the attention of Henri-Philippe Sambuc. This Genevian lawyer wants to start a business in the area of compressed air cars. He and some other private investors created a company and bought the production license for Switzerland. The main company in Carros will provide the plans for a turnkey factory, but they must first find an actual physical location for the factory site. And it's smack dab in the middle of Jura in the Courgenay area that Sambuc found his little happy place. "The company has piece of real estate on hold until the end 2009. It's an industrial lot that is 17,000 square meters in size, adequate for the construction of a compressed air vehicle manufacturing facility", says the lawyer. Since nothing yet was completely for certain, Henri-Philippe Sambuc was also looking for other possible solutions. And then, surprise! He found an empty industrial building, the Swissmetal facility at Reconvilier. This plant has been closed since a strike in 2006. "There will be approximately 150 employees and a maximum of 12,000 vehicles per year," says the future boss.
It is possible that the first cars produced from this facility could roll off the production line by 2010. This schedule may be a bit optimistic, especially since these vehicles must still be certified by the department of transportation. Meanwhile, the French company will present these prototypes at the Salon de l'Auto in Geneva.