Not OU, but an alternative to electric cars (?)

[Low-Q]

Electric cars have the posibility to recharge some of the used electricity when the car deaccelerate or breaks. I have seen engineers making motors which runs on compressed air also. They fill a tank with lots of air, and release a valve - then you go. This tank has often a limited running time, and as far as I know the released air are just waste. Does anybody know if someone has invented a similar motor which reload the tank if you want to break or stop the car?

Let's say the motor also work as a compressor. Valves are used to redirect the airflow from the surrounding air, compressed by the motor, and into the tank during deacceleration or breaking. In this way the spent energy are just to fight against friction, and not used for acceleration too. The equation isn't this simple, but the point is to cancel out the energy you use during acceleration (except friction), by harness the energy back during deacceleration.

What are the drawback of such a design versus a battery driven electric car? The good sides are quite clear vs. gasoline cars which litterally waste all the energy on acceleration - and nothing comes in return.

Vidar

[Paul-R]

There has been a fair amount of work on "air cars":
http://www.mdi.lu/english/produits.php

[Sprocket]

There's also the MYT engine, purportedly massively more efficient than standard engines, currently air-powered, though the inventor says can also use more conventional fuels (to please Big Oil no doubt!)

http://www.angellabsllc.com/index.html

I've been following this guy for years and production  of the engines always seems to be 'just around the corner' - frustrating!  It would be nice after all this time to at least see one for sale somewhere...

[happyfunball]

Electric cars use magnetic braking, which harnesses EMF through Lenz's Law. Not sure how you'd incorporate that into a compressed air car, since the charge would need to be harnessed, ie: the addition of a heavy electric motor, batteries, etc. As for the MYT engine, I firmly believe that guy is a straight up con man.

[Low-Q]

Air cars can use the compressor for braking and retardation. At least taking back as much as possible of the energy it will spend during acceleration. Air cars are also more environment friendly than a 500 pounds battery pack. However, I think that an electric braking are more efficient.