Zero
Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com that it expects to
produce the world's first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or
early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the
Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine,
ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are
likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production
around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year. And while
ZPM is also licensed to build MDI's two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one
headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas),
the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make
the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent,
six-seat modified version of MDI's CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an
even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph
with each tiny fill-up.
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