Whilst innovation in battery technology and semiconductors will continue to incrementally drive down the price of renewable energy cars, there is little hope in the next ten years of this technology producing a vehicle suitable for use in the third world (and indeed in the poorer parts of the first world). Electric cars are (and will continue to be) significantly more expensive than ICE cars for at least another decade, indeed currently the price of semiconductors and lithium are increasing substantially. The search for alternatives has included significant drawbacks which have proved to be difficult to overcome: Hydrogen; The energy density is low and fuel cells are even more expensive than batteries; Hydraulic; energy storage potential is low and significant heat is generated, leading to energy loss through cooling; Pneumatic; energy loss in the system is expressed a cold (when re-using the stored energy), additional energy is lost in heating the system to prevent it freezing up.

This project seeks to produce a Proof of Concept (POC) for a combined hydraulic/pneumatic system, using an 'air battery' to store energy.

This process may not be as efficient as a battery/electric vehicle, but it will be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to build in volume. The air storage tanks can be fabricated very cheaply and hydraulic/pneumatic pumps are substantially cheaper to build than ICE engines and battery electric drives. In addition a significant portion of the third world inhabits coastal regions where wind is usually plentiful, a wind powered air compressor is a relatively cheap machine that would provide free energy to the users of these vehicles.

Since this technology has no exact automotive precedent, it is difficult to accurately simulate the process. Therefore, the plan is to upgrade an existing ICE vehicle to operate using this technology and use this POC to understand the losses in the system to help assess the viability of this technology.