Cars

This Puch moped only has a range of about 15 kms and with a top speed of only 29 kph, it isn’t going to break any land speed records, but there is definitely something special about it: it runs on air. Jim Stansfield, an aeronautics graduate outfitted his Puch with a pair of carbon-fibre air cylinders, two rotary air engines and the rest, as they say, is history.

The air powered Puch is a very interesting concept and while the seven-mile range might not sound like much, it is plenty for getting around city centres. Add to that the convenience that it takes only a couple of seconds to refill the air from a larger cylinder and you have something that could just work.

The only drawback to this system as I see it is that it is running on clean air; of the sort that is generally found in diving cylinders. If you have your own bottles, that is going to cost you $8 or $10 per big bottle and could push the running cost up a little over an electric bike. On the other hand, there is no need to run the system on dive-grade air. If you are not going to use the cylinders for breathing then there is no reason why you couldn’t fill it yourself with standard compressor air. [Motorcycle News via Ecogeek via DVICE]