Forget petrol, electricity and even hydrogen…Our car runs on air

Alex de Vos
A Geelong design team yesterday unveiled a car that runs on air.
The Deakin University engineering students’ T2 car went on display in Detroit, USA, as a Ford Global Challenge winner.
Deakin said the lightweight design could reach a top speed of 120km/h “fairly quickly” and travel for 200km on a tank of air.
Two adults and two children would fit inside.
Deakin said the car would sell for less than $9000.
Three six-kilogram compressed-air engines powered the car, Deakin said.
The team of Waurn Ponds students accepted the global challenge award along with a $30,000 scholarship during a presentation ceremony in Detroit.
The competition challenged university design teams from around the world to produce cheap, green cars for the future. Deakin was Australia’s only university to take part in the challenge and one of six worldwide.
The challenge marked 100 years since the debut of Ford’s Model T, regarded as the world’s first affordable car. Ford billed the challenge as a bid to find the “next Model T”.
Deakin project leader Dr Bernard Rolfe described T2 as a “very green machine”.
“Compressed air requires less change to current infrastructure than other alternative sources and reduces vehicle emissions to zero,” Dr Rolfe said.
“Our design, developed by a cross-disciplinary team effort from across the university, has plenty of bang for the buck.”
Mr Rolfe said Ford challenge judges labelled the design “simple, lightweight, practical, compelling and low cost”.
Project architect Greg Pitts said the team might apply for government funding to build a full-scale prototype.
The team spent three months designing the car, he said.
“After investigating a variety of alternative fuel sources we came up with air,” Mr Pitts said.