Air Cars And Silent Electric Scooters Coming To A City Near You In 2011

Despite oil prices going down, the $150 a barrel record price in July had many motorists think twice on the cost of fuel they are placing inside their vehicle's tanks. It has also spurred inventors to come up with vehicles that run on alternative fuels.

Two such vehicles are making inroads in various global cities today. One is the electric bike, which is silent compared to motorcycles that run on fossil fuel. The other is a car that will run on air and a little fluid.

Various global capitals are now testing grounds for the popularity and durability of electric bikes. In the U.S. the top manufacturer is Vectrix Corporation, which in September reported a 738 percent increase in revenues compared to the same period last year. Vectrix sold 1,184 electric bikes to dealers in September, which is a 156 percent rise.

Its Electric Vx1 and Vx1e models were assembled in Poland, but Vectrix recently signed a contract with China to have a facility in Asia. Outside the U.S., Taiwan's SYM Corporation plans to also outsource the manufacturing of its electric bikes in China.

Vectrix bikes have been spotted in the Netherlands and Scotland. The electric bikes, though, are still pricey at $11,000 in the U.S.

Meanwhile, another U.S. firm, Zero Pollution Motors, is planning to come out with a $20,000 vehicle that runs on air and a bit of salad oil, alcohol or gasoline. It will use compressed air to drive car engine pistons instead of gas or diesel similar to what Indian car manufacturer Tata has used.

A tank of compressed air will travel for about 60 miles at 35 mph. Refill for the air tank will be by plugging it into a wall socket or recharging with electricity since the motor compresses air. The air vehicles will likely roll out of U.S. factories by 2011 with planned manufacturing plants in almost all the states.

***

The Air Car

According to Green Business, the Air Car will arrive in the US by 2009 or 2010, courtesy of Zero Pollution Motors.

The quirky alt-propulsion vehicle's anticipated $17,800 price tag includes standard safety equipment like airbags and ABS, along with the 75-horsepower compressed-air six-cylinder that gives the car its name. Brave envelope-pushers might even reach the Air Car's estimated 96 mph top speed.

Drivers who aren't interested in treating it like a Mustang GT, however, should achieve fuel economy equivalent to 106 miles per gallon and have an operating range of 848 miles.

The projected CO2 emissions should be negligible (0.158 lbs/mile) when cruising at over 35 mph (the car uses small amounts of fossil fuel to get air in a heating chamber up to temperature at those speeds).

Below that, it's expected be emissions-free, assuming the tech specs remain the same at the time the car reaches production. Until those are set in stone, the related performance and environmental numbers are subject to change.