Web Desk(August 10, 2018): A group of students from the Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt have designed a car in order to combat rising fuel costs and the promotion of clean energy by running on not petrol, or diesel, or any fossil fuel or renewable source, but just plain air.
The car running on air was designed by the undergraduate students as a part of their graduation project from the Helwan University situated just outside Cairo. They have rolled out a prototype one-passenger vehicle which runs on compressed oxygen.
The vehicle prototype looks like a standard go-kart and has come at a time when Egypt is pushing ahead with painful economic reforms which include deep cuts to energy subsidies which are measures related to a three-year 12-billion dollar IMF loan programme which began in late 2016.
The students say their vehicle can hit 40 kilometers an hour and last 30 kilometers before needing to be refueled, and it only costs about 18,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,008.40) to build.
“The operational cost of the vehicle… will be almost nothing. You are basically using compressed air. You are not paying for fuel and also you do not need cooling,” said Mahmoud Yasser, a student who helped design it.
The University team is now moving towards raising funds in order to expand the project and eventually mass-produce the vehicles. The creators of the vehicle believe they can get the car to a top speed of 100kmph and also increase the range to 100kms before needing more air.
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