Air and Battery

It is possible to build a vehicle whose power source is batteries augmented by compressed air. Even the best batteries can only charge so quickly, so to augment this and reduce a bottleneck, battery-laden carswill be fitted with compressed air tanks and supercapacitors. The car will be plugged in to a 220v socket. This will charge the batteries and superconductor, and power an air compressor which will begin filling the air tanks.

A compressed air motor will assist the electronic drivetrain, and either can run alone. This could also be duplicated with a small biodiesel, ethanol, LNG or petroleum engine assisting batteries. A small solar panel might be another good idea to trickle-charge the batteries, and a small amount of compressed air can be leaked continually to add charge to the battery packs. It is estimated that today's best Liion batteries hold 135watt hours/kilogram, making them a feasable choice. We may replace these batteries with metal hydride batteries. How many wh/kg do the best metal hydrides produce?

Note that if the electricity is made using solar electrolysis or bacterial photosynthesis, zero total pollutionis produced from start to park.

Adding piezoelectric coatings to the vehicle's shocks would also provide electrical charge for the batteries. [idea originated in April 06]