 
 
Air Cars: A New Wind for America's Roads?
November 27 2008 16:50 A new carmaker has a plan for cheap, environmentally friendly cars to be built all over the country An air-powered car? It may be available sooner than you think at a price tag that will hardly be a budget buster. The vehicle may not run like a speed racer on back road highways, but developer Zero Pollution Motors is betting consumers will be willing to fork over $20,000 for a vehicle that can motor around all day on nothing but air and a splash of salad oil, alcohol or possibly a pint of gasoline. More from Kiplinger.com: • Does It Pay to Buy That Hybrid? • What You Need to Know About Leasing a Car Now • Easy Ways to Save Money on Transportation The expertise needed to build a compressed air car, or CAV, is not rocket science, either. Years-old, off-the-shelf technology uses compressed air to drive old-fashioned car engine pistons instead of combusting gas or diesel fuel to create a burst of air to do the same thing. Indian carmaker Tata has no qualms about the technology. It has already bought the rights to make the car for the huge Indian market. The air car can tool along at a top speed of 35 mph for some 60 miles or so on a tank of compressed air, a sufficient distance for 80% of consumers to commute to work and back and complete daily chores. On highways, the CAV can cruise at interstate speeds for nearly 800 miles with a small motor that compresses outside air to keep the tank filled. The motor isn't finicky about fuel. It will burn gasoline or diesel as well as biodiesel, ethanol or vegetable oil. This car leaves the highest-mpg vehicles you can buy right now in the dust. Even if it used only regular gasoline, the air car would average 106 mpg, more than double today's fuel sipping champ, the Toyota Prius. The air tank also can be refilled when it's not in use by being plugged into a wall socket and recharged with electricity as the motor compresses air. Automakers aren't quite ready yet to gear up huge assembly line operations churning out air cars or set up glitzy dealer showrooms where you can ooh and aah over the color or style. But the vehicles will be built in factories that will make up to 8,000 vehicles a year, likely starting in 2011, and be sold directly to consumers. There will be plants in nearly every state, based on the number of drivers in the state. California will have as many as 17 air car manufacturing plants, and there'll be around 12 in Florida, eight in New York, four in Georgia, while two in Connecticut will serve that state and Rhode Island. More from Yahoo! Finance: • 5 Ways to Save on Child-Care Costs • Europe Returning to Land of In-Reach • Get 'Em Before They're Gone Gifts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Family & Home Center The technology goes back decades, but is coming together courtesy of two converging forces. First, new laws are likely to be enacted in a few years that will limit carbon dioxide emissions and force automakers to develop ultra-high mileage cars and those that emit minuscule amounts of or no gases linked with global warming. Plug-in electric hybrids will slash these emissions, but they'll be pricey at around $40,000 each and require some changes in infrastructure -- such as widespread recharge stations -- to be practical. Fuel cells that burn hydrogen to produce only water vapor still face daunting technical challenges. Second, the relatively high cost of gas has expedited the air car's development. Yes, pump prices have plunged since July from record levels, but remain way higher than just a few years ago and continue to take a bite out of disposable income. Refiners will face carbon emission restraints, too, and steeply higher costs will be passed along at the pump. Zero Pollution Motors doesn't plan to produce the cars in the U.S. Instead, it plans to charge $15 million for the rights to the technology, a fully built turnkey auto assembly plant, tools, machinery, training and rights to use trademarks. The CAV has a big hurdle: proving it can pass federal crash tests. Shiva Vencat, president and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors, says he's not worried. "The requirements can be modeled [on a computer] before anything is built and adjusted to ensure that the cars will pass" the crash tests. Vencat also is a vice president of MDI Inc., a French company that developed the air car. The inventor of this technology is Mr. Guy Negre, who is the founder and CEO of MDI SA, a company headquartered in Luxembourg with its R and D in Nice, France. .......................... by Jim Ostroff
Big Real Estate Would Love Bloomberg Triplex
November 27 2008 12:13 Trump: 'Fourth term? Absolutely! I think it would be great!' New York's real estate community doesn't just love Mayor Bloomberg. It lurves him. And it's greeting the news of his third-term bid accordingly. A sampling: "Love him," said developer and landlord Alex Sapir. "Let's keep him forever." "It's the best news I've heard in years," said residential superbroker Michelle Kleier, president and chairman of Gumley Haft Kleier. "I can't think of anyone who's done more for New York ... in my lifetime," said Howard Lorber, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman owner. "I think he's the greatest mayor we've ever had," said Douglas Durst, of the Durst Organization. Mr. Durst even thinks the new president should call Mr. Bloomberg down to Washington to "straighten out the financial mess." "I think the country needs him more than the city does," he said. Thirty-something Dumbo developer Jed Walentas called Mr. Bloomberg, "the best mayor New York has had--certainly in my lifetime." And Donald Trump said he begs the mayor ("Michael," to him) to run whenever they meet. "Any time I see Michael I say, please run," Mr. Trump said. "I don't want to get into the details, but any time I see him. I think it's very important." So what gives? Why all the love for Massachusetts' own, Michael Bloomberg? First off, he's been a very pro-business, pro-real estate mayor. The expansion of 421a development tax abatement exclusionary zones aside--(Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal and another mayoral fan, pointed out no one is perfect)--the powerful Real Estate Board of New York has long held Mayor Bloomberg in a favorable light. And, given recent events on Wall Street, real estate types would prefer a businessman like themselves take care of New York City. (Far easier to trust a businessman, after all, than an activist or, even worse, a lifelong politician.) "Somebody who can run a multibillion dollar company certainly is capable of running the city--we need more of his type running the country, running the world," Ms. Kleier said. Mr. Knakal agreed, asserting that "now more than ever, we're going to have to run municipalities like businesses, and I think that his business acumen will serve the city well in being able to deal with the tremendous deficits we're looking at." "Without a doubt there will be reductions in tax revenue and there will have to be spending cuts and how those cuts are implemented in maintaining a balance between providing service and cutting spending is very much like running a very large company," Mr. Knakal added, "and he is very experienced in that area and has proven he can do an effective job." All of the mayor's attributes aside, there is something to be said for continuity in leadership during these difficult economic times, said Stephen Siegel, chairman of CB Richard Ellis' Global Brokerage. "The city will have many challenges over the next few years," agreed Jones Lang LaSalle's regional president, Peter Riguardi. "The great leadership we have had for the past 16 years with Giuliani and Bloomberg must continue as the real estate community is dependent upon New York having a tremendous labor market which will only thrive in New York if the quality of life is justifiable to the cost of living." Questions of due process--whether or not it's O.K. for Mayor Bloomberg to push for overturning a term-limits law that voters twice passed--were generally pushed aside, with real estate heavies arguing that elections were the ultimate term limit. Except, that is, for Mr. Durst, who told The Observer that he would prefer the voters, not the City Council, overturn the term limits law. Such piddling concerns aside, New York real estate overwhelmingly and profoundly hearts Mike. Mr. Trump summed it up nicely: "Fourth term? Absolutely! I think it would be great." ........................................... The story was reported by Max Abelson, Eliot Brown and Dana Rubinstein; and written by Ms. Rubinstein.  |
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