A solar car is a solar vehicle used for land transport.

Solar cars usually run on only power from the

sun, although some models will supplement that power using a battery, or use solar panels to
recharge batteries or run auxiliary systems for a car that mainly uses battery power.

Batteries

The battery pack in a typical solar car is sufficient to allow the car to go 250 miles (400 km) without
sun, and allow the car to continuously travel at speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h).

Motors

The motors used in solar cars typically generate about 2 or 3 horsepower,[5] yet experimental light
solar cars may attain the same speed as a typical family car (100 mph (160 km/h)).[6]

A compressed air car is a compressed air vehicle that uses a motor powered by compressed air. The
car can be powered solely by air, or combined (as in a hybrid electric vehicle) with gasoline, diesel,
ethanol, or an electric plant with regenerative braking.

Advantages[edit]

The principal advantages of an air powered engine is

 It uses no gasoline or other bio-carbon based fuel.

 Refueling may be done at home,[4] but filling the tanks to full pressure would require
compressors for 250-300 bars, which are not normally available for home standard
utilization, considering the danger inherent at these pressure levels. As with gasoline, service
stations would have to install the necessary air facilities if such cars became sufficiently
popular to warrant it.

 Compressed air engines reduce the cost of vehicle production, because there is no need to
build a cooling system, spark plugs, starter motor, or mufflers.

 The rate of self-discharge is very low opposed to batteries that deplete their charge slowly
over time. Therefore, the vehicle may be left unused for longer periods of time than electric
cars.

 Expansion of the compressed air lowers its temperature; this may be exploited for use as air
conditioning.

 Reduction or elimination of hazardous chemicals such as gasoline or battery acids/metals

 Some mechanical configurations may allow energy recovery during braking by compressing

and storing air.

 Sweden's Lund University reports that buses could see an improvement in fuel efficiency of
up to 60 percent using an air-hybrid system. [5] But this only refers to hybrid air concepts (due
to recuperation of energy during braking), not compressed air-only vehicles.