20/10/2000 14:06 - (SA)

Air-powered cars on the way to SA
By Johann Verster

Running on empty - The innovative air-propelled car, e.Volution, will be able to travel 200 km on one tank of compressed air at a cost of about 1c/km. A production plant for the car will be built in Gauteng and the vehicle could be available to the public from June 2001. (Beeld)

A car that could revolutionise the motor industry and which led to death threats against the designer will be unveiled at the Auto Africa show in Johannesburg next week.

The e.Volution vehicle is powered by compressed air from high-pressure cylinders similar to those used by deep-sea divers. Made of feather-light material and weighing only 700 kg, it is essentially a city run around but can reach a speed of about 130km/h on the open road.

The e.Volution will be able to travel 200 km on one tank of compressed air at a cost of about 1c/km and can run for 10 hours in city traffic.

The inventor is Guy Negre, a French motor vehicle engineer and former Formula One engine designer. He has apparently received death threats because of the invention, which could cripple the worldBs oil industry.

Having devoted the past decade to his creation, which uses a suction "engine" of only 35 kg, Negre has licensed groups of SA investors to manufacture the vehicle locally. Up to 2 000 units a year will be made here initially.

He says the energy efficiency levels of his vehicles compared favourably with those of petrol, diesel and electric engines. Air stations could be erected anywhere to fill the tanks in just three minutes. Alternatively, the vehicle can be refilled in about four hours with the aid of an electric pump and an ordinary power socket.

It will sell for R65 000 and the first vehicles could roll off the local assembly line by next June as a factory employing 120 people on eight-hour shifts is to be established in Gauteng.

SA group Zero Pollution Motors will finance the first factory outside France with Helen Brown the founder. Matthews Phosa, former premier of Mpumalanga, is a shareholder and chairman of Zero.

The vehicle will be launched to the motoring press next week and the show will be open to the public from next Friday.

-- Maxwell (dont-know@not-telling.xxx), October 25, 2000 Answers These are quite interesting. Check out: http://www.zeropollution.com/ They even have some sort of carbon filtered intake, so that the air leaving the car is actually cleaner than the air entering the car. The web site mentions that Mexico city has ordered 40,000 as taxis. I'm sure they will be allowed on US roads any century now.... -- (Lewis@NarniaGeneral.Delivery), October 25, 2000. RESPONSE: THE 0-POLLUTION NO-GASOLINE REQUIRED AUTOMOBILE, AN INVENTION AT PAR WITH THE CURE FOR CANCER, SO WHERE THE HELL IS IT, WHY DON'T I HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT IT, WHY ISN'T ON THE NEWS, DOES'NT THE MEDIA THINK ANYONE WOULD BE INTERESTED, MAYBE I'M WIERD BUT I AM INTERESTED, HOWEVER, I'M TIRED OF READING 2-YEAR OLD E-ADS ABOUT IT, WHATS HAPPENING WITH THE AIR-POWERED CAR IN THIS CENTURY? -- ME (ECHUBBEY@KGSGROUP.COM), April 24, 2001. Moderation questions? read the FAQ