David Le Page An extraordinary new vehicle with a unique power source is lined up for production in South Africa, offering hope for those incensed by the cost of hydrocarbons.
The car, called the Taxi ZerO Pollution (TOP), runs off motive energy stored as compressed air in tanks resembling those of scuba divers. The compressed air impels a piston engine. In effect, it’s a serious version of toys whose power source is emptying balloons. The TOP is the brainchild of a former French Formula One racing engineer, Guy Negre. It looks similar to the micro-minibuses recently introduced by the likes of Renault to the South African market. The compressed air is stored in tanks holding 300 litres and attached to the underside of the car. The body of the vehicle weighs only 700kg; the engine itself is a mere 35kg. This means that the vehicle can theoretically be driven for up to 10 hours in an urban environment at an average speed of 80km/h.
Plugged into a electrical power source, it can take as much as four hours for the car to “re-fuel” as air is compressed and forced into the storage tanks by a small compressor. But large-scale “air stations” could manage the task in just three minutes for companies running fleets of air-powered commercial vehicles. The projected cost in South Africa is around R74 000, near the bottom end of the market. The vehicle’s range is 200km, at a phenomenal projected cost of just R2. If this scenario proves workable, the savings may well seduce many who might otherwise be put off by the range limitation. Details on the technology have yet to be revealed, but the concept is significantly simpler than others being pursued by developers of environmentally friendly transport, such as fuel cells and internal combustion-electric hybrids. Road tests of the prototypes have been done since 1998 in Brignoles, France. A hybrid version of the engine runs on normal fuel at speeds higher than 60km/h, still with extremely low energy consumption. But the car itself is not the only innovative part of the concept. The production has been designed to be extremely simple, allowing factories to be constructed for a minimal $8-million. Such a factory would produce 2 000 to 4 000 vehicles a year with a staff of 130. The factory concept is designed to be franchised, and easily transported to developing countries. The local branch of Zero Pollution Motors hopes to establish a production line in Gauteng next year, being in production by 2002. l Zero Pollution Motors was not answering calls on Thursday.